Kensington Cafe

The idea really came from one of the local residents in this community. There was a dormant space, they raised the idea of having a space where people can gather, they can build relationships and engage with their community and now we've got a cafe for them to do that. Yeah, VMCH runs a very successful cafe and hospitality business for providing opportunities for individuals or youth with challenges to employment and training, primarily with disability. And that resonated with me and Unison being that we provide opportunities to our renters that face barriers to employment. Our values are very much aligned, we have the space and so again, we've been able to create the space in partnership. I think the Kensington estate is a very good example of a mixed tenure community whereby there's public housing, social housing, affordable housing and private rental. And I think for a long time there's been a challenge of engaging a broader community within the estate and so having a cafe to engage that you otherwise probably wouldn't engage with on a day-to-day basis. So really building community is what the cafe is all about and we think it's a fantastic initiative to be able to do that.