The heart of every center – the café
The heart of every mother’s center is the open café, which is surrounded by a wide range of family-friendly services, neighborhood help and advice. The activities are geared to individual needs and the respective municipal circumstances and offer concrete and creative answers to local gaps in supply.
Coffee is method
The family café is an open meeting place and offers low-threshold access to a central contact point in the community. Here it is important to create opportunity structures for encounters, to establish relationships and to be a contact and information hub for all visitors.
The café is not just about a gastronomic offer, it is rather the method for contact and encounter, for conveying values and models, according to the motto “Pretend, join in, do it yourself”. Thanks to the wide range of needs-oriented offers, people of all ages, with different personalities and educational styles, life experiences and educational backgrounds, cultural and social needs literally come “to one table”. A simultaneity of living and learning takes place, a transfer of knowledge on a practical level.
There are many cafés – what is special about them? Cafe with hostess!
The holistic approach (keeping body and soul together) and “taking care of each other” makes people happy to come to the center, creates trust and forms the basis for self-help, networking and civic engagement.
Above all, the employees in the center, the so-called hosts, must develop an awareness that people must first and foremost feel comfortable and welcome so that they can accept help and support and, ideally, maybe even get involved in the center. What is important is the atmosphere in which a culture of welcome with opportunity structures for a variety of encounters and activities can develop.
If this is successful, the rest will take care of itself. People come regularly, like to be in the center, exchange ideas, make contact with other visitors and, ideally, contribute themselves and their skills by working in the center.
Qualified hosts
In order for the concept of the open meeting to succeed, responsible and qualified employees are required whose main skill must be a high level of social competence – the so-called hosts in the café. They create the atmosphere in which a welcoming culture with opportunity structures for diverse encounters and activities can develop. They are the first point of contact for visitors. However, their tasks also consist of making it easier for new visitors to settle in and to accompany them on their way. For young families and those who are new to the district, they can be a guide. As a kind of “coach” in the social area, they provide important tips, an overview of the available offers and, if necessary, establish contact with other institutions and sponsors.