St Augustine’s Cafe@99 has been used as a case study in the “Holy Alliances: Church-secular partnerships for social good” Report from the think-tank Demos.
The Report looks at ‘Holy Alliances’, where church and secular organisations work together for the common good. The Report shows that as a result of austerity, more churches are partnering with non-faith voluntary organisations to tackle local issues.
The Report is based on a survey of 120 church leaders, 10 expert interviews and 12 case study interviews and has revealed that churches are almost four times as likely to partner with non-faith voluntary organisations than businesses are in order to tackle local challenges.
One of the Report’s 12 case studies was St Augustine’s, in Cambridge, which works with local groups to provide a community café. Café@99 is open three mornings a week and aims to address social isolation.
The Vicar, the Rev Janet Bunker said: “Churches have invaluable local knowledge and roots. In partnership working, there’s a lot to gain and not much to lose... The beautiful thing about the parish system is that it immediately imbues us with a community ethos. Our mission is to support the entire parish, regardless of faith or background”.
The full Report can be read via this link, with the St Augustine’s case study featuring on page 8.
To read more about the St Augustine’s, please visit their website here.
