Situated in the former Redcastle Furze Community Centre, the ‘Meet Up Café’ is at the heart of the Thetford Inspiring Communities project, which has provided The Benjamin Foundation with funding to design and run the initiative. The ‘Meet Up Café’ acts as a hub, providing a safe place for young people to meet.  Open to children, young people and their families, it’s been designed particularly with 11 to14 year olds in mind.  

The café was named by Joseph Wild, a year seven pupil at Charles Burrell High School, who entered a competition run by The Benjamin Foundation to find the right name for this hugely important facility.  

Sharon Matthews, Operational Manager for Children and Young People at The Benjamin Foundation, says: “We all loved the name that Joseph suggested because it is so simple and straightforward.  We want the café to be a place where young people, and their families, can meet up with friends and get involved in a range of new activities which will inspire them.

The Benjamin Foundation pitched for the funding with the core aim of raising aspirations of young people in Thetford; particularly focusing on the Abbey, Redcastle and Barnham Cross estates. “Inspiring Communities aims to encourage the development of innovative campaigns and activities designed to raise the achievement of young people in deprived areas; broadening their horizons and building their self esteem,” Sharon Matthews explains.  “The project in Thetford has had loads of input from local people so we can be sure that the services we are delivering are wanted and needed by the community.”

At a Community Panel Meeting late last year, people living on the three estates were invited to tell The Benjamin Foundation what they would like to see developed with the available funding.  The most important items on the public wish list were the youth café, lots of training opportunities and a community gardening project.

Terry Jermy has been appointed as the Inspiring Communities project manager for The Benjamin Foundation.  24 year old Terry has been a community worker in Thetford for more than six years, primarily working with children and young people, and he is also a town councillor.  “This is one of the most exciting projects for children in Thetford for many years so I really wanted to be involved,” Terry says. “We have a real opportunity to improve the lives of young people and it’s not that long ago that I was at high school in the town so I can identify with some of the issues that they are facing.”  Tina Westgarth works alongside Terry as Café Development Worker.  Tina previously worked at Redcastle Primary School.  “Between us, Tina and I know lots of people in this area so we hope that our local connection will be of extra value.” 

The cafe, which has just been officially opened, is already proving popular:   “We’re already getting lots of people dropping into the café to see what’s going on,” Terry continues. “There are lots of opportunities for people to get involved with the project and we’d encourage anyone who is interested in helping to give us a call or pop in.”  

There are opportunities for local businesses to get involved as financial, or practical, sponsors of the Thetford Inspiring Communities – anyone interested project should call Terry on 01842 820871 or email sharon.matthews@benjaminfoundation.co.uk.