Yorkshire charity launches first aphasia café in Halifax

The Calderdale Aphasia Café will launch on Friday, September 9 and will provide the opportunity for people living with aphasia to meet up, share their experiences and build their confidence in communicating.

Aphasia is a very complex communication and language disorder that requires ongoing specialist support. The leading cause of aphasia is stroke, with a third of the UK’s 1.2 millions stroke survivors acquiring the condition.

The group will take place every second and fourth Friday of the month between 10.30am and 12.30pm at Holy Trinity & St Jude’s Church on Free School Lane. The sessions will be run by Speak With IT’s network of volunteers, and will include a monthly session with speech and language therapist, Shorufa Yasmin.

James Major, CEO of Speak With IT, said: “It’s great that we have managed to get this funding from the Community Foundation for Calderdale to create an aphasia café in Calderdale. We initially wanted to create the group before the pandemic, so it’s been a long-held ambition for the charity to get something set up in Calderdale. We find that our aphasia cafes perfectly complement the one-to-one support we offer people with aphasia. The aphasia cafe provides an opportunity for people with aphasia to meet in a supported environment where everyone understands the difficulties they face.”