Find your nearest warm space in Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich, Haverhill, and across Suffolk
This winter, pubs, libraries, village halls, churches, and community rooms in Suffolk will be opening their doors as free - warm spaces.
Suffolk charity, the Rural Coffee Caravan, have launched an interactive map of 91 warm spaces - including a café in Bury St Edmunds, churches in Haverhill and libraries and cafés across Ipswich.
The map also includes all of the Rural Coffee Caravan's initiatives which aim to tackle social isolation, including: winter caravan visits, MeetUpMondays, coffee and friends events and 'More Than A Shop'.
In Bury St Edmunds, warm spaces will include the library in St Andrew's Street North, the new library on the Moreton Hall Estate and the Combat2Coffee in Guildhall Street.
St Mary's Church in Haverhill will be open a warm space on a Friday between 9am - 3pm and the town's Methodist Church will be open between 9am - 3pm on a Wednesday.
In Ipswich Geek Retreat will be open every day of the week as a warm space, libraries across the town will also be welcoming in those that need support this winter.
The team at the Rural Coffee Caravan said they wanted to 'identify and map out' each one of the community warm spaces across Suffolk - so that people can 'find and share their nearest'.
Any organisations who want to sign up as a warm space can do so by emailing - info@ruralcoffeecaravan.org.uk
A spokeswoman for the Rural Coffee Caravan, said: "How we're going to manage to keep warm this winter is topic of many a conversation at our Village Visits at the moment.
"More people than ever may find themselves, having to make tough choices and face unexpected challenges throughout the colder months, in order to mitigate rising costs."
She added: "Though wider support is needed, our wonderful Suffolk communities are already working towards ensuring no-one in their neighbourhood is lacking a regular place to be warm and maybe grab a hot drink."
As well as supporting warm spaces in Suffolk, over the coming months the Rural Coffee Caravan will also be encouraging vulnerable members of society to take a look at their Winter Warmth Page.
The page includes links to organisations which the charity hope 'might help people through the challenges of the coming months'.
This autumn and winter the Rural Coffee Caravan will also be running their Cooking with Kindness appeal 2022 - 2023, which will help buy slow cookers, wearable blankets, hot water bottles and electric blankets, for those that need them.
During their previous appeal the charity raised enough money to buy 700 slow cookers - which use very little power but allow cheaper ingredients to be made into delicious and nutritious meals.
The Rural Coffee Caravan team said they will share recipes on their social media channels in the coming months and added that they hope: "Warming nutritious meals will help the recipients stay well through winter and beyond."
