Da Cafe

A safe space for young people to socialise

Da Café, run by the OPEN Project, has continued to provide opportunities for young people in Shetland to socialise with friends. Da Café is a weekly drop-in youth café aiming to attract Shetland’s most vulnerable and hard-to-reach young people. OPEN have found that having a consistent, safe, and welcoming place to meet has been hugely successful in engaging young people, including those who are care-experienced, involved with Criminal Justice, and/or excluded from school, youth clubs, community centres, and sports facilities.

To enable this to happen, strong partnership relationships with local services and young people in the community have been paramount. Young people who attend have played an integral role in how the service is delivered and developed, with an average of 35 people attending each session. The café owner at the Olive Tree, worked with OPEN to ensure the youth space became a reality, and that affordable food and drink is available. Shetland Islands Council’s Catering and Cleaning Team Leader also worked with OPEN to provide soup for each Da Café session at no cost.

The café is now open over 2 nights, and OPEN have engaged with many new young people, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of volunteers. Da Café has played a critical role in the information and peer research gathered from young people attending these sessions; particularly around changing trends and the issues they face locally. Da Café continues to provide an excellent opportunity to conduct peer research and meaningfully engage with young people on the ground. 

Da Café relates to our ‘Participation’, ‘People’ and ‘Place’ priorities. Staff have actively sought young people in the community in decision making and service delivery, including identifying and involving those who do not often have their voices heard. This is therefore increasing community participation and hopefully people who feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area. The project aims to connect people to their communities; and involve communities in shaping their own future resilience and create positive places that are socially sustainable.