Public community organisations (libraries, museums, citizen service centres and so on) can contribute to a dementia-friendly community. The perspectives of staff play an important role in this. As part of a participatory health research project, we collected small stories about the experiences of staff with people with dementia and informal carers. Staff in public community organisations have considerable experience interacting with people with dementia. Participants describe individual strategies for dealing with the uncertainty and a lack of institutional support. Communication training and structures to reflect on the conflicts in encounters with people with dementia in public community organisations are supportive of their becoming dementia friendly.