Welcome CoalitionBuilding stronger systems of welcome across the UK
A busy community hall event bringing people together

Welcome in Practice

A live picture of welcome provision across the UK, drawn from the Welcome Coalition database.

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Examples of good practice

From the Welcome Coalition Impact Gallery: organisations across the UK doing inspiring welcome work.

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Coexist Community Kitchen

Cooking classes for refugees and asylums seekers, Bristol

Coexist Community Kitchen, from the Impact Gallery
Photo: Donya Yousefi

Coexist Community Kitchen, based in Bristol, uses food to bring people together and support people experiencing social marginalisation, including refugees and people seeking asylum. Through free outreach cooking programmes such as Speak & Eat, participants prepare and share meals from around the world while also improving their English in a relaxed, welcoming environment. The sessions combine practical cooking skills with language learning, cultural exchange and opportunities to build friendships. By creating a space where people can contribute their own knowledge and traditions, the programme helps newcomers develop confidence, reduce isolation and feel part of their local community. It demonstrates how shared food can be a powerful tool for fostering belonging, mutual understanding and social integration.

“Our vision is an inclusive world, where everyone is nourished. The idea is that food is a bridge where it’s all about community, connection and resilience.”

Service provider
Visit Coexist Community Kitchen’s website ↗

Research insights

  • People rarely find support through one clear front door. They arrive through councils, housing teams, community groups and word of mouth, and trusted relationships keep them connected.
  • Activities such as cooking, sewing, sport and games are often the real way into support, not an optional extra.
  • Feeling safe matters, and so does building the independence and confidence to take part in wider community life.
  • Sudden relocation breaks the connections people have built, and national systems do little to carry support from one place to the next.
  • Much of what holds local welcome together is informal: staff, volunteers and small groups doing referral and relationship work that is rarely recognised or funded.
  • How funding is designed matters as much as how much there is. Short grants and tight restrictions make it hard to keep buildings open and support consistent.

Welcome across the UK, by numbers

A live snapshot from the Welcome Coalition database. These figures update automatically as the directory grows.

4,685
Organisations in the directory
14
Regions covered
397
Towns & cities

Where welcome happens

Organisations by region

London1,446
North West585
West Midlands433
Yorkshire and the Humber400
South East340
South West334

Most common types of support

Share of organisations offering each

Social connection41%
Mental health & wellbeing35%
Advocacy & rights24%
General advice & signposting24%
Family, child & youth19%
Employment & skills17%

Findings from the mapping report

Selected figures from the Welcome Coalition national mapping report, produced with Just Knowledge for the Henry Smith Foundation.

Two broad types of welcome organisation

Heatmap of two organisation types and how likely each is to offer seven broad service areas. Type 1 (61%) is likely to offer most areas; Type 2 (39%) mainly offers social connection.
Almost every organisation offers social connection. About six in ten surveyed organisations layer a broad range of practical support on top (employment, education, mental health, family and youth); the rest focus on community and social connection. These are complementary forms of provision, not a ranking.Source: Mapping report, figure 9 (survey organisations, n=101)

Where welcome organisations are, by region

Map of the UK showing the share of welcome organisations in each region. London has 32%, the North West 13%, and every other region 9% or less.
Of 5,165 organisations, 4,547 are in England, 273 in Scotland, 130 in Wales and 45 in Northern Ireland. Registered addresses can be head offices, so they do not always show where services are delivered.Source: Mapping report, figure 3 (N = 4,995 with a known location)

Which services are offered together

Chart of how often pairs of services are offered by the same organisation. Mental health with social connection is the most common pair, at 966 organisations.
Social connection and mental health and wellbeing are the pair most often offered together, partly because both are the most common services overall. A large count shows what is most visible in the data rather than a distinctive model of provision.Source: Mapping report, figure 6 (3,812 organisations with service information)

Funding by region

Stacked bar chart of grants from the ten largest funders by region, 2021 to 2025. London receives over £100m, far more than any other region; the National Lottery Community Fund is the largest funder everywhere.
Grants from the ten largest funders in 2021–2025 are concentrated on London-based organisations, and the National Lottery Community Fund is the largest funder in every region. This shows where recipients are registered, not where services are delivered or where beneficiaries live.Source: Mapping report, figure 16 (360Giving data, 1,375 funded organisations with a known region; 2025 prices)

Provision and funding by deprivation

Two bar charts by small-area deprivation decile. Organisations per 100,000 residents fall from 15 in the most deprived decile to 2.6 in the least, and funding per resident falls from about £11.50 to £0.51.
Welcome provision and funding both fall as deprivation falls: 15 organisations per 100,000 residents in the most deprived areas against 2.6 in the least, and £11.50 of funding per resident against £0.51.Source: Mapping report, deprivation figure (360Giving data, 1,345 funded organisations, 2021–2025)

Explore partner databases

Some organisations are listed on trusted partner networks and regional partnerships. We link to those databases rather than copying their entries, so our directory stays accurate:

Explore the data yourself

See where welcome happens on the interactive map, or search the full directory of organisations.

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