Coffee Afrik CIC | Health

liberation, healing, abolition.

Coffee Afrik CIC is an award-winning lived experience-led community organisation working across East London. We collaborate with women and young people from Black and Global Majority communities to run community hubs providing life-saving services, building knowledge, skills, and connections in the pursuit of power.

We currently oversee 28 projects, across seven community-led hubs, including a Youth Hub, two Women’s Hubs, a problematic drug use safe space, a research lab, and a systemic litigation space.

Our work is inspired by the Black Panther party and its community programming, and is designed with key principles which include love, care and liberatory harm reduction.

Meet our Community Leaders

selected projects

'Reworlding Hubs, Liberatory Harm Reduction, Saving our Lives'

A three-year community wealth-building collaboration with Decolonising Economics and Land in our Names. We're working with the community to co-design structures to sustainably devolve decision-making power, resources, and assets to the community. Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Collaboration with London's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU)

VRU commissioned us to conduct participatory research in our community to understand how public services can better serve young people facing systemic equities. Our report, which lays out urgent policy recommendations, will be available in April 2025. Coffee Afrik is a founding member of the Fatherhood Consortium: a VRU initiative supporting fathers and families.

Culturally Sensitive Community Connector Service

Since 2019, we've been commissioned by the East London NHS Foundation Trust to run a culturally sensitive Community Connector Service.

We've since supported thousands of clients to access support for housing, employment, mental health care and much more.

Problematic Drug-use Project & Street Outreach

We provide a culturally sensitive support service for individuals experiencing problematic drug use, providing hot food, blankets and harm reduction support, working with over 150 individuals each week. We campaign for more safe use spaces with the London Harm Reduction Collective.

Housing Justice Campaigning

Supported by the Civic Power Fund, we launched a national housing campaign to raise awareness about social injustices in housing. Our efforts focused on exposing the unsafe and inadequate housing Somali families were assigned by Tower Hamlets Council. As a result, our work was featured in both The Guardian and The Mirror.

support our community bank account

We're currently crowdfunding to raise funds for our Community Bank Account, which will enable our whole community to be more involved in financial decision-making at Coffee Afrik CIC, as well as to build financial reserves for the community.

The community will lead on how the funds will be used, whether it's investment in community infrastructure, business ventures led by the community, or financial hardship grants for community members in crisis.

Open Collective, a fiscal host for grassroots organisations, is hosting the account, ensuring income and expenditure and transparent and open for all.

Donate via Open Collective