Supporting passion for play at the Wolves children’s cafe

It's not all work and no play for us here at Charter Savings Bank. We’re committed to giving something back to our local communities, and we’re proud to continue supporting Wolverhampton Play Café as they celebrate their fifth year. Here’s a brief recap of what the café aims to do, and what they’ve been up to over the last year, with our help.

Background

The café was founded in 2018 by mother and daughter team Lisa and Helen Stallard, with the aim to facilitate varied, open-ended play opportunities to support development and independence of children under seven (primarily those under five) in Wolverhampton. The areas it serves are within the top 10% most deprived in the UK, so it’s a much-needed resource.

It was also set up to:

• create a caring and cohesive community;
• help reduce feelings of isolation in caregivers of young children by providing safe, friendly, welcoming and diverse opportunities to share their stories; and
• empower caregivers of young children to support their knowledge of children’s development and create a lifelong impact.

Investment and extension

In 2024 the café has extended its staff capacity and enhanced vital digital resources including its website. It’s also developed and maintained its key playspace and a fuller café.

This year, on its fifth anniversary, the café delivered indoor and outdoor sessions across seven locations. From September 2023 to September 2024, participants totalled 2,430 children and 1,845 adults, a huge 92% increase on the previous year.

The support we provided the café this year has directly supported recruitment costs, training (including necessary first aid training) and uniforms. Enhancements to the website also facilitated more efficient communication as the volume of sessions increased.

Pre-loved kitchen units were donated to enable the development of a refurbished café at their Boundary Way location, and monetary donations helped towards further improvements including new sinks. In June 2024 the café was awarded a 5-star food hygiene rating. The overall extension and improvements made, including an extended menu offering, have seen an increase in footfall of over 350%.

Going green

Our employees also wanted to get involved, so some of them used their volunteer hours to work in the community garden, which is a haven for the café’s outdoor activities, weekend play sessions and parties.

In addition, the local community make use of the space with allotments, and ensure that biodiversity is encouraged, and the space is well cared for.

Altogether over 200 volunteer hours were recorded across May, July and September 2024.

Lisa Stallard said: “On behalf of the little ones, their caregivers and our organisation, thank you for making this important impact in our city.”