Born on the Pembury Estate.
Building community infrastructure.
Coffee Afrik CIC started in 2018 with a coffee pot, a kitchen, and a radical belief, the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. Today: 33 interconnected projects, 14,000+ people reached every year.
A movement born from community.
In 2018, siblings Abdirahim and Simeera Hassan opened a Crisis Cafe on the Pembury Estate in Hackney. A coffee pot, a kitchen, a garden, and a place to be heard. No referrals, no forms, no proof of need. Just a belief that the people closest to a problem are the people closest to its solution.
Abdirahim brought twenty years of community organising and campaigning on housing injustice. Simeera brought poetry, art, and the practice of holding women's space. Together they built what the area had been asking for: care that felt like family, not like services. Rooted in joy, in Islam, and in love.
What began as one cafe has grown into an ecosystem. Seven hubs across Hackney and Tower Hamlets. Youth leadership and women's healing. Fathers' spaces, health justice, housing justice, research and cultural organising. More than 14,000 people reached every year, with leadership recruited from the community first.
But Coffee Afrik was never meant to run hubs forever. The vision is devolution: building the relationships, knowledge and leadership that let communities govern, organise and shape their own futures. In 2024 the Hackney Women's Hub became the first to be fully devolved to community governance. More will follow. This is not a finished piece of work. It is a movement, still being built by the people it serves.
Not spoken about. Spoken with.
When my family was going through a difficult time, Coffee Afrik didn't just offer support, they stood beside us. They took the time to understand what we needed and connected us to people who genuinely cared. That kindness gave us hope when we needed it most.
Retreat 2026
Community leadership circle, where the next chapter is written together.
Coffee Afrik didn't ask me to fit into their vision. They helped me discover my own. They gave me the confidence to speak, to organise and to stand beside others who are creating change. That confidence doesn't end when a programme finishes, it stays with you.
We speak with communities.
Not about them.
An ecosystem, not a portfolio.
Our 33 projects aren't a collection of services, they're an interconnected ecosystem of healing, leadership, learning, organising and care. Youth Hubs feed governance pathways. Health Justice connects to Housing Justice. Research informs organising. Each piece holds the others.
Community-owned infrastructure.
Coffee Afrik is no longer simply delivering projects. We are building national community infrastructure, the relationships, leadership, knowledge, healing spaces and collective capacity that allow communities to shape the policies, institutions and resources that affect their lives.
Lived experience as methodology.
People who have experienced housing injustice, mental health crises, structural inequality or harm from the drugs trade hold knowledge no training can replicate. That knowledge grounds our research, our advocacy and our care.
Power devolved is power kept.
The Hackney Women's Hub devolved to community governance in 2024. The Youth Accountability and Governance Board followed. Five paid Young Community Steward roles now share governance, accountability and leadership across the organisation. "I believe in revolution. I believe in devolution.", Abdirahim Hassan.
Eight years of good trouble.
Crisis Cafe opens
Abdirahim and Simeera Hassan launch Coffee Afrik on the Pembury Estate, Hackney. A community garden, a kitchen, and a place to be heard.
NHS partnership
Commissioned by East London NHS Foundation Trust. UK's first Somali peer-to-peer mental health pathway begins.
Lockdown response
Food parcels delivered to struggling families across Hackney and Tower Hamlets. The crisis cafe model proves itself under pressure.
Youth Hub launches
The Youth Hub opens at the Attlee Community Centre on Brick Lane. The busiest Black-led youth service in Tower Hamlets.
Women's Hubs
Two Women's Hubs, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, both designed and led by the women they serve.
National recognition
Abdirahim Hassan named BBC 1Xtra Future Figure. Coffee Afrik featured in the Big Issue, Sky News, Hyphen and the Hackney Gazette.
Power devolved
The Hackney Women's Hub becomes the first hub fully devolved to community governance. The Youth Accountability and Governance Board is established.
Cambridge Prize
Coffee Afrik wins the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize. Health Justice Programme scales across Tower Hamlets PCN 7 & 8, reaching 1,500+ residents.
Community infrastructure
33 interconnected projects across two Youth Hubs, two Women's Hubs, Health Justice, Housing Justice, Research, Artivism and Community Organising. 14,000+ people reached annually.
What we stand on.
Liberation
Freeing communities from cycles of trauma, institutional racism, and structural deprivation.
Healing
Restoration, reflection, recovery and collective care, intergenerational, cultural and spiritual.
Community Stewardship
Power devolved to community. Communities themselves hold the wisdom, leadership and solutions.
Lived Experience
Leadership from those who have walked the path. Communities as knowledge producers, not subjects.
Cultural Rootedness
Somali culture, Islamic faith, East African coffee traditions, the streets of East London, sources of strength, not difference.
Long-term. Community-led. Not finished.
Coffee Afrik isn't a finished piece of work. It's a movement being built by the communities it serves, and the direction is clear.
- Invest in women, girls, young people and families
The heart of the ecosystem. More Women's Hub cohorts, deeper youth pathways, family-facing programmes.
- Strengthen community leadership
More Young Community Stewards. More devolved hubs. More lived-experience leaders holding the pen.
- Expand the reach of the hubs
Additional boroughs, additional Hub sites, deeper reach into East London and nationally.
- Lived experience shaping research, policy and decision-making
Participatory research with QMUL and partners. Policy work rooted in community knowledge, not extracted from it.