A NEW cafe and job club are being launched by a church congregation who hope to prevent social isolation and loneliness, and help people into employment.

Radcliffe United Reformed Church (URC) is preparing to open a weekly cafe to create space for people to enjoy food and find support. The Listening Ear Community Café has been born out of a former weekly social eating group which promoted “togetherness and connection.”

Plans for the cafe, which will open on Tuesdays between 9.30am-3.30am as of July 2, took a huge leap forward due to a successful National Lottery grant application of £10,000.

Nigel Adkinson, minister of Radcliffe URC, said: “We are very proud of Listening Ear and hope that the cafe will be a welcoming place for people in Radcliffe to meet, eat, connect and support each other and be a place of reflection and emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing.”

Other plans include the launch of a new job club to help people with CV writing, confidence building and job searching.