ON the evening of Thursday the 14^th September nine months of multi-agency collaboration culminated in the delivery of a World Café at Revoe School in Blackpool. This is part of a MutualGain initiative from the Home Office which trains staff to engage with communities in a completely different way. The aim of the café is to encourage the community to identify and discuss their problems and complaints within their community as opposed to services raising their own agendas linked to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

MutualGain adopts the novel approach of enabling those who participate to feel relaxed and welcome by adopting a café style atmosphere. Participants were given three topics and the opportunity to draw and write all of their views on the café tablecloths, whilst being served drinks and refreshments.

This produced many new, thought provoking ideas from both the elderly and young alike, many of whom had not attended a meeting before. Visual minutes were produced throughout the duration of the café. A more legible version of the minutes (below) is available HERE.

Text Credit: Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Comms Team