Chatty Café Scheme

The first Chatter & Natter table was set up in a cafe in Oldham, England, in 2017.{{Cite web|url=http://www.salfordnow.co.uk/2020/12/17/salford-alumni-success-alexandra-hoskyn-strives-to-increase-human-interaction/|title=Salford Alumni Success: Alexandra Hoskyn strives to increase human interaction|first=Wiktoria|last=Szatkowska|date=December 17, 2020|website=Manchester Evening News|access-date=11 August 2021}} The founder of the initiative and later director of the company, Alexandra Louise Hoskyn, is a social worker in the Learning Disability and Autism team in Oldham.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ted.com/talks/alexandra_hoskyn_connecting_in_cafes|title=Alexandra Hoskyn, TEDxKazimierzWomen: Connecting in Cafes|date=December 7, 2019|website=TED|access-date=11 August 2021}} The Chatty Cafe scheme soon found support by Costa Coffee and Sainsbury's, referring to the tables with varying terms, for example "talking tables",{{Cite web |last=Green |first=Miranda |authorlink=Miranda Green (British journalist) |url=https://www.ft.com/content/1c01e1da-e35d-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee|title=Chatty cafés try to ease Britain's loneliness epidemic |website=Financial Times, ft.com |date=November 8, 2018 |accessdate=14 August 2021}} and was implemented in cafes across the country as well as in the United States. By 2023, there are over 1400 participating cafes around the world.[https://www.www.independentliving.co.uk/industry-news/the-chatty-cafe-scheme/ Independent Living website, Retrieved 2023-05-31]{{Cite web|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/chatty-cafe-scheme-loneliness-costa-coffee-208308|title=Meet the woman behind anti-loneliness scheme Chatty Café|date=October 12, 2018|website=inews.co.uk|access-date=11 August 2021}}

The Oldham Borough Council discussed the scheme and noted that "libraries, leisure centres, and the local markets; health centres and hospitals run by the NHS; and pubs, cafes, shopping centres and retail parks run by business partners have potential to host such schemes".{{Cite web|url=https://committees.oldham.gov.uk/documents/g7886/Public_reports_pack_15th-Jul-2020_18.00_Council.pdf?T=10&txtonly=1|title=Council Meeting Wednesday 15 July 2020|publisher=Oldham Borough Council|access-date=12 August 2021}} Page 26. Other organizations supporting the scheme included Beefeater, Age UK, Mind, Campaign to End Loneliness, and Whitebread.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scie.org.uk/prevention/research-practice/getdetailedresultbyid?id=a110f00000TDAH2AAP|title=Chatty Cafe Scheme|website=Prevention research and practice|publisher=social care institute for excellence (SCIE)|access-date=12 August 2021}} Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands county, campaigned for coffee shops and other venues to participate in the scheme.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wmca.org.uk/who-we-are/meet-the-mayor/the-chatty-cafe-campaign/|title=The Chatty Cafe Campaign|website=Meet the Mayor. West Midlands Combined Authority|date=October 12, 2018|access-date=11 August 2021}} MP David Lammy referred to the scheme in his book Tribes{{cite book |last=Lammy |first=David |author-link=David Lammy |date=2020 |title=Tribes. A Search for Belonging in a Divided Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBd2DwAAQBAJ&dq=chatty+cafe&pg=PT243 |location= |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |page= |isbn=9781472128713}} in terms of his proposed 'encounter culture' for encouraging "meaningful engagement between people of different ages, ethnicities, backgrounds and places on an equal basis".{{Cite web|url=https://fabians.org.uk/the-new-tribalism/|title=The New Tribalism|first=David|last=Lammy|date=May 4, 2020|publisher=Fabian Society|access-date=12 August 2021}}

Chatty Cafes run three afternoons a week. To overcome persons' hesitation to be the first at a table,{{YouTube|id=2bn2xCytQ0U|time=5m3s}} the initiative created the role of an "ambassador" as a person to be present at a table a few hours a week. Additionally, the role of a "volunteer" was created, who visits various venues seeking feedback as to how the tables are going.{{Cite web|url=https://takepartoldham.volunteermakers.org/get-involved/hour-or-two/chatty-cafe/147/|title=Chatty Cafe|website=Take part - Oldham|access-date=11 August 2021}}

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the scheme was extended to include telephone and video calls to combat isolation, matching volunteers with persons wanting a call on a weekly basis. Local social services have used the Chatty Cafe initiative as part of social prescribing.{{YouTube|id=2bn2xCytQ0U|time=6m16s}}

In September 2020, the Chatty Cafe Scheme joined the British government's Tackling Loneliness Network,{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emerging-together-the-tackling-loneliness-network-action-plan/emerging-together-the-tackling-loneliness-network-action-plan#annexa|title=Annex A: List of Tackling Loneliness Network members|website=gov.uk|access-date=13 August 2021}} a group of charities formed in spring 2020 as part of the government's plan to tackle loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak and period of social distancing.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emerging-together-the-tackling-loneliness-network-action-plan|title=Policy paper. Emerging Together: The Tackling Loneliness Network Action Plan|website=gov.uk|date=May 8, 2021|access-date=13 August 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-plan-to-tackle-loneliness-during-coronavirus-lockdown|title=Government launches plan to tackle loneliness during coronavirus lockdown|website=gov.uk|date=April 22, 2020|access-date=13 August 2021}}

In 2023, there were approximately 600 venues across the United Kingdom.{{cite web |author=Jennifer Ferreira |url=https://thechattycafescheme.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Final-Chatty-Cafe-Scheme-Report-2023-May-2023-1.pdf |title=Tackling Loneliness and Social Isolation: An Evaluation of the Chatty Café Scheme Services |publisher=Coventry University |date=May 2023}} Page 14.

Bethan Harris, the founder of the research project Loneliness Lab, has been quoted as saying that initiatives such as the Chatty Cafe scheme are praiseworthy, yet may offer too simplistic solutions as far as overcoming loneliness is concerned, given that people may be searching for meaningful interaction and the opportunity to build relations, not mere chance interaction.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/06/talk-to-stranger-loneliness-loner-chatty-cafe|title=A month of meaningful conversation: my quest to befriend a new person every day|first=Daniel|last=Lavelle|date=January 6, 2020|website=The Guardian|access-date=11 August 2021}}

In 2019, the BBC reported on "Happy to Chat" benches{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-50000204|title='Happy to Chat' benches: The woman getting strangers to talk|first=Matt|last=Lloyd|date=October 19, 2019|website=BBC|access-date=11 August 2021}} and on an initiative by the BBC and public transport companies encouraging people to talk to their fellow passengers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-50000204|title=Crossing Divides: Can a 'chatty bus' combat loneliness?|first=Tom|last=Burridge|date=June 14, 2019|website=BBC|access-date=11 August 2021}}

In December 2019, Hoskyn presented the scheme in a TEDxKazimierzWomen event in Kraków, Małopolskie, Poland,{{Cite web|url=https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/35986|title=Theme: TEDxKazimierzWomen|date=December 7, 2019|website=TED|access-date=11 August 2021}} and at the end of 2020, Chatter and Natter tables had been set up in Poland, Gibraltar, Australia and Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48622007|title=The Chatty Cafe Scheme Australia Ltd.|date=2020|website=Australia Charities and Not-for-profits Commission|access-date=11 August 2021}}

The scheme started in Britain, where "traditional reserve is said to make it almost impossible for the British to talk to strangers in public places".{{Cite web |last=Cook |first=Lindsay |url=https://www.ft.com/content/e5128cb8-38e5-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0 |title=Combating the 'loneliness epidemic' with coffee and chat |website=Financial Times, ft.com |date=March 1, 2019 |accessdate=11 August 2021}} The scheme has been cited as one of several examples of social, affective spaces{{Cite journal|last1=Koksvik|first1=Gitte H|last2= Richards|first2= Naomi|title=Death Café, Bauman and striving for human connection in 'liquid times'|journal=Mortality|date=April 28, 2021|pages=1–18|doi=10.1080/13576275.2021.1918655|doi-access=free|hdl=11250/2995494|hdl-access=free}} Page 12.{{Cite book|last=Dixon|first=Anna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpblDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA251|title=The Age of Ageing Better? A Manifesto For Our Future|date=2020|isbn=9781472960740|access-date=12 August 2021|page=251}} Sociologist Thomas Thurnell-Read has credited the initiative as inspiring further schemes such as the use of 'Join Me' cards in a pub in the Southeast of England. Such cards enable customers to let other customers and staff know they are open to having a conversation.{{Cite web|last=Thurnell-Read|first=Thomas|url=https://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Open-Arms-The-Role-of-Pubs-in-Tackling-Loneliness_Final-Report.pdf|title=Open Arms: The Role of Pubs in Tackling Loneliness|date=2021|access-date=12 August 2021}}

• 2018: Royal Society grant{{cite book |last= Howes |first=Anton |date=2020 |title=Arts and Minds. How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nju-DwAAQBAJ&dq=chatty+cafe&pg=PA313 |location= |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=313 |isbn=9780691182643}}
• 2019: Innovating for Ageing competition by the Just group and International Longevity Centre{{Cite web|url=https://ilcuk.org.uk/chatty-cafe-scheme-wins-innovating-for-ageing-competition/|title=Chatty Cafe Scheme wins Innovating for Ageing competition|date=February 1, 2019|website=International Longevity Centre UK|access-date=11 August 2021}}
• 2020: Points of Light award by British prime minister Boris Johnson for "transforming the culture of talking to other people in cafes, combating loneliness and opening up people's lives" with the scheme.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pointsoflight.gov.uk/chatty-cafes/|title=Chatty Cafes - 1303. Alex Hoskyn|website=Points of Light, Prime Minister's Office|access-date=11 August 2021}}
• 2021: OBE for Hoskyn in the Queen's Birthday Honours for 2021{{Cite web|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mum-who-told-family-shed-20797054|title=Mum who told family she'd been given an OBE as an April Fool's joke gets OBE|first=Kit|last=Vickery|date=June 12, 2021|website=Manchester Evening News|access-date=11 August 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalworld.com/news/uk-news/queens-birthday-honours-list-2021-full-list-of-awards-issued-including-arlene-phillips-and-jonathan-pryce-3269969|title=Queen's Birthday Honours List 2021: full list of awards issued - including Arlene Phillips and Jonathan Pryce|first=Finlay|last= Greig|date=June 12, 2021|website=nationalworld.com|access-date=20 August 2021}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://thechattycafescheme.co.uk Official website]

Category:Civil society in the United Kingdom

Category:Coffee culture

Category:Community interest companies

Category:British companies established in 2019