When Deniece Dixon set up Cafe Conscious with her husband Wayne Dixon in Barton Hill nine years ago, there was no question over the space being more than a regular business. Over the last few years it has transformed into a community cafe that provides support to a diverse range of people.
With the rising cost of living, the Jamaican cafe has seen its overheads rise and the needs of people in Barton Hill grow. Despite the economic uncertainty, Deniece is determined to not only continue to support the local community but expand on the support they currently offer.
For Deniece, helping others is central to who she is as a person - having struggled with poverty for most of her life, she said she cannot sleep at night knowing that others are going hungry. “A lot of what I do stems from when I was a single mum, I had four children and I can remember using up the emergency electric and we were sat in darkness, I had no money.
