Café in a Box

As a result of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, GEMS Café had to move online! This project was funded by the Molly Hurst Foundation, via the South Yorkshire Community Foundation, and had a mental health and wellbeing focus. These cafes were part of our contribution to combating social isolation, and intended to bring young women together ti partake in a fun activity. We wanted to offer something practical and absorbing despite being virtual, and also take the opportunity to discuss issues around health and wellbeing.

In this section you will find:

• 4 session plans, including recipes, extra activities
• Risk Assessment

Feel free to use/adapt any of the above. We went about advertising our sessions in 2 ways.

First: individuals. Using the leaflets linked above, we shared the dates on our social media and sent them out to our network of schools and sister organisations. The contents listed on our session plans are what you would send to each individual participant.

Second: young women living communally. For us, this meant contacting housing providers:

• Roundabout
• Sheffield Foyer
• Young Women’s Housing Project

This meant delivering larger boxes to one location, with the contents being shared out on arrival.

The second approach meant that there was a member of staff supervising the activities. For the individual events, this supervision was not possible. We produced a risk assessment which takes this into account and explains how risk can be minimised in this context (e.g. no need for sharp knives). Feel free to download and amend!