00:00In the heart of Canterbury, one community cafe is offering more than just a place to grab a coffee.
00:05Chatterbox is bringing people together through volunteering, community events and a space where local people can connect.
00:11We've got our profit-making arm with the business, we've got properties, we've got the hotel which is actually above
00:17the cafe.
00:19When the cafe lease came up, we couldn't find the right people to fit it, both in terms of it
00:25being good fit for the street and also good fit the hotel above.
00:30And we've always had an idea of wanting to do something in terms of giving back.
00:35Why did you feel a place like Chatterbox was needed in Canterbury?
00:40There's lots of cafes around in Canterbury. You've also got places like Lily Kitchen, the Umbrella Centre and church groups.
00:50But they're very much centred for either impoverished or people with learning difficulties or people from a religious background.
01:02And we felt there was a lot of need for other groups where it was more of an unbiased setting,
01:09a general setting.
01:10Chatterbox holds a lot of community events throughout the week, including the local U3A group who spoke to me about
01:15how they came across the cafe.
01:17Friends told me how good it was and how welcoming. So I asked if it was okay to bring a
01:24group and they said yes of course, we have lots of groups.
01:27Behind the cafe is a team of volunteers who give up their time to help create a welcoming environment for
01:33the community.
01:33Chatterbox is actually a national initiative. The idea is that people who might not be able to talk to people
01:42at home or just want somebody different to talk to,
01:46they know that they can go somewhere and they're always going to have somebody to talk to.
01:52At Chatterbox is about more than coffee. It's about the people, the connections and the community that grows around it.
01:58It's Ruby Tooley reporting for KMTV.
