What is the Rural Coffee Caravan Information Project?

The project involves a caravan that is towed to villages in Suffolk and is set up on a village green or such like. The project visits, in particular, those villages that lack other community facilities which means that social interaction for those without transport is difficult.

The project offers residents:

• useful information about many agencies and organisations;
• a chance to meet your neighbours, the friendly volunteers and meet new people; and
• coffee, tea and lovely home made cakes!

The project also has a Campervan which was funded by the Care Health and Independence (CHAI) Delivery Board (part of the Suffolk Strategic Partnership). It operates in much the same way as the caravan, but it is available five days a week and throughout the winter. This programme aims to link into existing village events such as coffee mornings and lunch clubs to bring the information service to places where there is some social focus but the same difficulty in getting access to information. Partner organisations travel with the project to these visits to increase awareness of the services they offer and to link people into the services they need.

We are very keen to help villages start or develop clubs/coffee mornings of their own; either of our teams can offer one or two visits as a stand-alone community café, to try to encourage use of these facilities once a social bond has been created.

How to get involved

To find out if the coffee caravan is due to visit your village please see the list towards the bottom of this page.

Would you like to suggest that it does visit your village? If so, please contact Ann Osborn on: 01379 855338 or email her at: coffee.caravan@btinternet.com

Can you help?

If you are a friendly person, have a good listening ear and a little time to spare, we are looking for volunteers to do any of the following:

• tow the caravan to villages;
• meet and chat with visitors; and
• help serve coffee, tea and cakes.

There is no specific time commitment and travel expenses will be paid.