Success Stories – The Usual Place

Christmas 2025 Message from our Chief Executive

17/12/2025

As 2025, our tenth year, draws to a close, it is a pleasure to wish you a Merry Christmas from everyone here at The Usual Place. At the beginning of this year I was genuinely unsure whether we would reach...

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2 young volunteers centre of the photo wearing The Usual Place uniform. Behind them are 4 mentors and 1 volunteer, wearing The Usual Place uniform. The volunteers centre of the photo are holding a certificate each. All of them are smiling into the camera.

Meishan and Eden Complete Their Work Experience

10/12/2025

Congratulations to Meishan and Eden for completing our S3 Work Experience Programme today. This is open to all schools. They were each presented with a certificate by Alana and Liam, and were congratulated by Mentors and other team members as...

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Smartly dressed lady in pink hat stands next to a tall middle-aged lady with short blonde hair and glasses. The former is wearing black gloves and is pinning a British empire Medal with red ribbon to the blonde lady's black dress

Usual Place Founder is Presented with British Empire Medal November 2025

01/12/2025

Heather Hall, the woman who fought to set up The Usual Place and set up the charity behind the cafe: Inspired Community Enterprise Trust Ltd in 2011 was presented with a British Empire Medal by Lord Lieutenant Fiona Armstrong on...

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Young man looks at the camera and smiles. He is sitting at a laptop in the cafe at a table. There are drafts for posters beside him - he is making these using his laptop

Internship for Harry

17/11/2025

Meet Harry, one of two new Information Interns at The Usual Place. You may recognise Harry as he completed his training here in our cafe and has been a very engaged member of our team over the past year or...

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Young woman smiles up at the camera over her shoulder. She is sitting at a desk and using a paper-cutter to finish off some menus she has created at her desk

Leah joins the team on an internship

13/11/2025

Introducing our new intern – Leah! Leah is one of two new Information Interns here at The Usual Place. She and Harry will be with us one day a week for the next 12 months to develop their information and...

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Extraordinary opportunities for young people raise almost £10K for The Usual Place

11/11/2025

Together, we raised almost £10,000 for The Usual Place – a wonderful result from an event on Sunday 26th October 2025 that will have a lasting impact. What made the day so special was the sense of shared purpose and connection that...

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Young woman in checked shirt sits behind a desk and smiles at the camera

Katy gains work experience in constituency office

14/10/2025

Training at The Usual Place not only gives young people an opportunity to learn food, drink and hospitality skills, our mentorship also enables individuals to discover their own strengths, gain confidence and reconnect with long held ambitions. Katie is now...

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Eva, Noemi and Leah Complete Their Work Experience

14/10/2025

Last week we said goodbye to Eva, Noemi and Leah who have been with us for the past six weeks on our S3 Schools Work Experience Programme in collaboration with Dumfries High School. It’s been wonderful to see how involved...

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Training at The Globe Inn to prepare for our Fine Dining Fundraiser Summer/Autumn 2025

12/09/2025

Liam and Evan (and Mentor Thomas) have had the amazing opportunity to spend time with the multi-award winning chefs from 1610 at The Globe Inn to learn the skills required to prepare some of the dishes for our Fine Dining...

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A volunteer standing centre of the photo wearing The Usual Place uniform. He is smiling and standing behind the Welcome board, ready to greet customers and show them to their tables.

Harry Has Completed His Training

05/09/2025

We are so proud of Harry, who has completed his training at The Usual Place and is moving on to further education computer course. We are also very pleased that Harry will still be part of The Usual Place team...