Manchester’s Wellbeing focussed café, Feel Good Club opened their doors just before the tier 3 lockdown, then continued to provide Manchester takeaway coffee, food, and support in what is one of the hardest times in history for everyone.
From what started as an Instagram page aiming to normalise the stigma around mental health, Feel Good Club is a mental health community providing support to the those struggling during this difficult time, and all of their staff are trained in mental health first aid to help everyone who steps through the doors.
Feel Good Club are now ineligible for any of the other government grants, including the furlough scheme despite their staff being on the payroll before the 30th.
This morning, owners Kiera and Aimie shared the following post.
‘We opened our wellbeing coffee shop + bar in Manchester’s northern quarter on the 17th of October, in the midst of a pandemic. We took a risk because we know what we do and the space we created is needed now more than ever.
Why we need your help? 3 days in, we were hit by a tier 3 lockdown. 2.5 weeks in came the national lockdown. This wasn’t a shock to us, of course we had prepared ourselves for it, opening in such an uncertain time.
What we didn’t prepare ourselves for was no government support. We’ve sadly been told we are ineligible for the furlough scheme despite having our team on payroll before the deadline and we also can’t benefit from any of the other grants.
The only thing we can do now is get our case in front of those who can make a change, e.g our local MP’s.
We’re not asking for crowdfunding of any monetary donations. All we want is to get as many eyes on this as possible so we can get the support we feel we are entitled to so we can continue to support our community in the way we set out to.
And to make a stand for so many other independents this is also happening to.
How can you help?
- Please share this far and wide to your story, to facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn anywhere you feel it will be seen
- Please tag anyone you think needs to see this too or that might be able to help
- Please comment below how Feel Good Club been open has personally helped you
- If you have time, please send an email to our local MP: contact@lucypowell.org.uk
Thank you for your support, if there’s anything you’d like to contact us directly about, you can email us directly at hello@feelgoodclub.co
We are all in this together xx’
“I live alone, work from home and have to use my apartment for all aspects of life, and it can get really isolating and tough, so to be able to have some human interaction, grab a coffee in friendly space – it really helps my mental health. It’s been a tough year, and without the club, and their support I don’t think I would have mentally made it this far without having some sort of breakdown.”
(Feel Good Club Customer)
Google Search data already shows the increasingly worrying rise in mental health searches, and the wellbeing space is a place they can help.
Out of the search terms Feel Good Club analysed, there has been a 25% uplift in the UK overall, with terms seeing a massive uplift such as:
- How to deal with health anxiety up by 53%
- How to cope with OCD was up a staggering 89%
- Tips on how to cope with depression 67%
