Dorset group aims to get people from couch to cafe

The Dorset group ‘Chitter Chatter Club’ aims to reduce loneliness by providing safe places for people to meet up and be who they are.

Based on Facebook, group members meet up in various cafes around the Dorset area including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to chat.

Group creator, Anne Anderson, had problems with loneliness feeling isolated after her move from the North to the South.

She said: “ I’ve always struggled with the Southern ideology.  Everywhere I went, I said, good morning, hello, and no one replied. Everybody looked really stunned and I felt really shunned and I didn’t have the confidence to go and say it again. So I, I did that for 10 years and then after that I just gave up and I just become really social isolated and very, very lonely.”

Anne created the club after a while to bring people who may be struggling together.

She said: “ They’re struggling with loneliness. It’s a really vulnerable time of their life to come through the door and come in and sit with a group of people. They come in and sit down and slowly join the group. They come in grey and they leave pink.”

The group now has nearly 300 followers on Facebook with anywhere between 15-20 people coming to the meetings.

She would also like to involve more students in the group as she feels like they need someone to talk to.

A study by the government in 2023 showed that nearly all students say they felt lonely at least once during the last academic year, yet almost half have hidden feelings of loneliness because they fear no one will understand.

Anne would like to do something about this and convince more students to come and join them.

She said: “ When students first come, they might go into their room and then they, bit by bit, lose a bit of confidence to go out in the corridor and go downstairs and mix and they want to get their work done. They want to get a first.

“And I think university is all about judgment. You’re judging yourself. The professors are judging you. You’re judging the professors. You know, education is a business and you know, all these targets to me and yeah, I think that period of insecurity and judgment and being away from home and landing on that island of judgment because that’s my experience.”

She believes that the club would do well for students and urges them to give it a go.

“ You can just come, put the phone down for an hour, play cards, play UNO, chat with the people around with them, feel safe with no anxiety around new people, to be able to learn communications, talking to people, different people from different courses.”

Anyone interested in joining can see the events here.