National Lottery funds for WiSE cafe

A popular support café in Wetherby for people living with dementia and their carers can reopen thanks to National Lottery funding.

Wetherby in Support of the Elderly (WiSE) says it plans to reopen its Meet Up Monday Memory Café this summer as a result of the £4,608 National Lottery Awards For All grant.

The cash will pay for a year’s venue hire costs for the café, which provides tailored activities for those living with dementia and weekly respite and support for their carers.

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WiSE Corporate Fundraiser Liz Robinson, said: “We’re proud of the way we’ve restored our core services in the wake of multiple pandemic lockdowns, but our once popular memory café was the last remaining event we’d been unable to reopen after its initial funding ended.

“We’re really grateful to National Lottery Awards For All for this funding, which will pay for a safe, well managed venue in which to host the café, helping to create a much needed support hub for people in our communities living with dementia and their carers.”

The weekly Meet Up Monday Memory Café was originally set up several years ago to respond to the growing number of dementia cases in Wetherby and its surrounding villages.

The café supported those living with dementia and their carers by providing an appropriate setting to focus on clients’ wellbeing, with sessions facilitated by two professional members of Over the Rainbow Care, alongside WiSE’s own trained volunteers.

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Support and advice was also offered to family carers to assist them in their day-to-day continuing and challenging caring role.

Further fundraising is underway to pay for paid, professional support workers ahead of the café’s reopening.

Wetherby in Support of the Elderly (WiSE) is a small registered charity set up in 2003 which aims to improve the quality of life for the over 60s by providing community based activities, information, help, advice and support.