21 Young Hearts: More than a café. Now more than a website.

21 Young Hearts is a Community Interest Company based in Suffolk, creating opportunities for adults with disabilities in the workplace. Its café opened in 2025 as a community space that serves coffee, offers paid work and training, and hosts events, talks and social activities. It also provides information and support for adults with disabilities, carers and employers. The mission is simple: a safe, supportive space where people build employability skills, grow in confidence and become part of a local community.

The café is only part of the picture. CommuniTEA Natters bring regular get-togethers to towns across the county, giving over 60s and their carers company, support and activities to enjoy together. Community Links sessions invite local businesses and organisations in to give talks and offer support services. The website also holds a growing library of resources on the support that is available.

The challenge

When the café opened, the team put together a basic website that covered the essentials. As the range of services grew, opening times and a map were no longer enough. 21YH wanted a hub that brought events, resources and key information into one place, and that carried the warmth of the café online.

The audience shaped everything. Adults with disabilities, carers, employers and the wider community all needed to find what they were looking for easily, which made accessibility and WCAG compliance essential. The existing site was not accessible, offered very little information and did not tell the story of who 21YH are or what they do beyond the counter.

Our approach

We worked across web design, UX and custom development began with research and a full sitemap, mapping every piece of functionality the team needed before any design started. We held workshops with the team to understand how they work day to day and which tasks they wanted to own themselves. Designs followed, reflecting the existing brand and its friendly, community-led direction.

The build centred on a custom WordPress theme with a modular component builder, so pages could be assembled from flexible blocks while staying consistent and accessible. Content is held in structured, connected fields rather than static pages, which means an event, a resource or an update only needs entering once to appear wherever it is relevant. A custom dashboard puts every editable part of the site in one place, alongside global fields for details such as contact information and opening times.

The finished site includes an at-a-glance view of upcoming events, a dynamic opening times tool, a blog, a resource library and a contact form, all built to WCAG standards and easy to navigate.

The result

The 21YH team can now add and edit pages, publish events, update menus and change opening hours themselves, with no developer needed. News and events go live the same day, information stays accurate, and the design stays consistent however many people are editing. We handed the site over with training videos and a component library, so new team members can pick it up quickly.

For visitors, the site now does what the café does: it welcomes people in, makes information easy to find and shows what a supportive community looks like. As 21 Young Hearts adds new events, resources and opportunities, the site is built to grow with them.