CoRE Community

Centre for Counseling, Research & Empowering Community (CoRE) is the charity arm of Tea Talk Vietnam Social Enterprise (the Social Enterprise in the shape of a Café) with the aim to enhance the well-being of individuals, groups and families. We do this by providing individual and family counseling services, life skills training, enrichment workshops and a host of community involvement opportunities.

Tea Talk is so much more than just a Café. In essence, it is the embodiment of community in its truest form – providing an environment for personal development, emotional creativity and sharing.  Simply put, without Tea Talk there would be no CoRE – and vice versa. If CoRE is the thinking mind behind the organization, then Tea Talk is the headspace within it. It is the environment in which the local community can come and express their souls and take part in all of what CoRE has to offer.

Tea Talk & CoRE employ social workers at the café to engage in efforts to fight stigma through education and dissemination of information on specific social issues. Patrons will be engaged in discussions after dramatic presentations on the subject matter. At the heart of Tea Talk’s work is authentic participation via skilled facilitation of interactive drama and other innovative platforms, leading to ownership of change and the empowerment to act on it. By developing non-threatening relationships with patrons, our staff can provide quality professional social work assistance to address patrons’ needs. In short, the objectives of raising public awareness of social issues and the availability of quality counseling and psycho-educational services, and increasing the public’s receptivity to these services are what shape the rudimentary service model of Tea Talk.

Counseling Service


Increase Awareness of Social & Mental Health Issues in Vietnam
It is Tea Talk CoRE’s assumption that accurate information and knowledge will reduce the stigma in help-seeking behavior, thus increasing the usage of existing social services, resulting in timely treatment for individuals and improving the overall well-being for the individual, family, and the community as a whole. We seek to address issues related to mental health, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, marital issues, and parenting.

Let's Talk - A training course that equips you with basic skills to be a peer counselor.


Provide Social Work Employment in a Non-Traditional Setting  
By employing social work graduates to work at the café, we are pioneering new ways to services delivery; an “out of the box” provision of social services. We believe that by setting the trend and by being a catalyst, policy change will ensue. With concrete measures of social returns, the government, local and international non-government organizations (NGOs), and the general business community can evaluate the impact of our services in the local communities. In turn, these institutions, organizations, and businesses may begin to explore and embrace the employment of social workers in non-traditional settings, leading to breakthrough interventions and strategies to address local problems.

Offer Internship Programs for Social Work Undergraduates
Tea Talk and CoRE provide field practice or internship programs for social work undergraduate students from partnering universities. During the internship with us, students will be exposed and trained in interactive drama techniques, counseling skills, psycho-educational services, facilitation skills, and referral systems with regard to services available. By providing supervision and training programs, we enhance the learning process of intern students and their development of awareness and expertise regarding many social issues, as well as the complicated dynamics of stigma and discrimination. 



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