Fresh Charity and Pause Cat Cafe are seeking the support of shoppers in the Bournemouth area to secure funding from Tesco Community Grants to extend disabled access downstairs in the cat cafe. Fresh Charity provides animal care and hospitality placements for people with disabilities at the Pause Cat Cafe, but wheelchairs users cannot access the lower floor of the cafe. The grant would help them redesign the premises to provide wheelchair access and ensure that all visitors can enjoy animal therapy in the cafe. Shoppers can vote at any Tesco store in the Bournemouth area from April. The winners will be chosen by the public vote and will have the chance to receive £500, £1,000 or £1,500 from Tesco’s Community Grants scheme.
Fresh Charity and Pause Cat Cafe’s accessibility project is one of the three shortlisted projects for the Bournemouth area, giving shoppers the opportunity to make a difference by using the tokens they receive at check-out each time they shop. Tesco has already funded over £100m to more than 50,000 community projects across the UK, and has invested in several initiatives that aim to reduce food poverty and malnutrition, and provide assistance to young people and community support projects.
The Pause Cat Cafe was established to provide a unique experience that combines the therapeutic benefits of spending time with cats with fundraising for animal charities. The cafe offers various opportunities for animal care training. However, due to the limited access, people with disabilities were not able to fully access the services. The grant will be used to improve the facilities, enabling all visitors regardless of their disability to enjoy time spent with the cats.
The partnership between Fresh Charity and Pause Cat Cafe has been successful in combining animal welfare, social care, and community engagement. The cafe is well-known for serving quality coffee and home-made cakes and providing a comfortable environment for cat enthusiasts.
Fresh Charity and Pause Cat Cafe Founder, Jaya Da Costa, said that “Many of our visitors, trainees, volunteers, and staff are wheelchair users and the cats love climbing aboard to say hello, but there are parts of our venue that can’t be reached without stairs” She added that “Adaptations would enable everyone to enjoy animal assisted therapy throughout, in particular, we could offer animal care training to more people as the cat care rooms are downstairs”.
Tesco Community Grants is run in collaboration with community charity Groundwork, who selects three groups for each local community to receive funding for community projects. Tesco customers then choose which initiative to support, and Tesco distributes the funds accordingly.
Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Tesco Community Grants continues to give local projects the boost they need to help their communities thrive. By funding services which support young people and reduce food poverty, we hope to facilitate positive change from the ground up across the UK. We are pleased to have been able to help so many local good causes over the years and look forward to seeing what community organisations can achieve in the future with the right resources.”
The funding is available to any community group or charity looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities, particularly those supporting food provision and children’s wellbeing. Anyone can nominate a project, and organisations can apply online.
