Group 11 GROUNDS OF HEALING (Posted 28 Apr 2026 12:11) – MSA LIVE 26

24/4/26

SESSION 7: ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY: WORKSHOP AT THE CFC

Having arranged with Mark and Lawrence to turn up to the Counselling and Family Centre at 10am, three of us, Taecho, Sofia and Nicolas, met up at the MTC just before 9am to pick up some of the equipment we would need and headed to the tram stop at St Peter’s. The tram ride was exciting - two of us had never been to the CFC before, or to Altrincham at all. Once we arrived, a short walk brought us to the building where we met up with Libby - who had driven instead, which made more sense for her living at home in Stockport. We made our way in slightly ahead of schedule, signed it at the reception and sat down in the cafe to prepare for the upcoming engagement activity.
We had with us 2 large A2 sheets which we had prepared in advance - one with options for potential colour palettes for the interior, and the other with a likes/dislikes and improvements column - as well as several printouts of a plan view of the CFC’s cafe and common room and cutouts of rooms within it, as well as with cutouts of furniture. While we were confident this would be easy to understand, and, ultimately, fun, we had to find a way to present this in an understandable way. Handily, we were given permission to use a large whiteboard that was standing in the cafe against the wall - so we stuck everything on, and, after some deliberation by means of having breakfast and a coffee, were ready to go.
The first two people we asked before going into the common room were two guys who worked at the CFC. They reacted extremely positively to the tasks and were very happy to take part and answer our questions - the main thing we got from them was that the layout of the cafe needed to be improved. Confident the tasks would work, we headed into the common room.
The main group of people we were to ‘survey’ were the Cafe friday club, a group of elderly people who gathered at the same time every week to socialise. We first entered and presented ourselves - explaining who we were and what we had come to do - after which we brought the whiteboard in. Sofia took control at this stage, explaining what each task we had created was about, with some of the rest of us adding to what she was explaining when it was necessary. Starting with the likes/dislikes and improvements suggestions task, the leader of the cafe Friday club started; soon, though, more people were contributing to the discussion, and in no time everyone was chipping in. While some of us listened, others took notes of what was being said. And there was a lot - from how there is no good storage space to how the lights were hideous, and from how they thought it was a shame their art was not on display (the common room is also being used for other things - such as for an art club) to how the ceiling was sagging and had already had to be repaired once recently when some squirrels got inside.
All those present also took turns to take a look at the colour palettes we had chosen and to place a vote using stickers next to their preferred option. Though we soon realised we had printed the colour palettes too small for comfort, Taecho was able to find them on his tablet and present them enlarged for the people to see better. Soon, a definite favourite emerged - the light, colourful colour palette which consisted of some soft greens, yellows and reds. As for room arrangement (the final task), we heard the same thing repeated - the toilets are inconveniently located (and should probably be moved somewhere outside), the kitchen could expand into where the toilets were currently, and the cafe needed reconfiguring and potentially expanding.
After around half an hour to 40 minutes with the cafe friday club we were satisfied we had gathered a fair amount of information and, conscious that they may want some time together to socialise, returned to the cafe, satisfied. We were not done yet, though - next we asked more members of reception for their opinion. One guy working in the cafe repeated what was said earlier - that he wished the kitchen was larger and that the cafe was better laid out - while another lady from reception that we had an especially long chat with was very enthusiastic about making better use of a dead space adjacent to the cafe which was lying empty at the date of visit, overgrown, but definitely with potential. Could that area turn into an outdoor seating area for use during the warmer months? Maybe even a pub garden?
We finished our time there at around 12pm with some final photos in the outside area, where the four of us posed with several members of the CFC and with our board, by now covered in post it notes with likes, dislikes and suggestions for improvements, as well as in stickers by certain colour palettes. The final results were convincing - the soft colourful colour palette, second down on our list, was a clear favourite with several times more votes than the next most popular option. As for suggestions for improvements, some popular ones were improving the lighting, adding better storage, moving the toilets and making better use of the space available (both in the cafe and outdoors). Room layouts mirrored what people had said in the suggestions. We didn’t end up using the furniture cutouts.
We left shortly after, pleased, as Libby headed off home in her car while the rest of us took the tram back to Manchester.

Posted 28 Apr 2026 12:11