A chair for chats

Dean Perryman, the founder of community group Empty Chairs, tells Rachel Burden how he's trying to reduce loneliness by encouraging strangers to chat to each other in pubs.

After his best friend Rob took his own life, Dean wanted to make sure that people could connect and talk. Empty Chairs happens in pubs across the UK, around a small table with a few chairs left intentionally free, so people can sit down and start a conversation if they need to.

Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they're doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café , cooking up plans, hearing the gossip, and celebrating the people making the world a better place.

We're all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community, or it might be about trying to make one life a little bit easier. And the key here is in the trying. This is real life. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it's always worth a go.

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Rachel Burden
Series Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Researcher: Daisy Herman
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Tom Bigwood