Recognising everyday volunteering heroes who make extraordinary things happen.

Warm Welcome Spaces are powered by tens of thousands of volunteers. Welcoming guests, sparking up conversations, making endless cups of tea, brokering new friendships, and putting a smile on people’s faces. They are people whose kindness and quiet commitment keep communities thriving. We know every Warm Welcome Space is kept going by amazing volunteers and supporters, from the smallest teams to the biggest hubs.

The Unsung Hero Award is your opportunity to say thank you and nominate an outstanding volunteer in your Warm Welcome Space. It will be awarded to one inspiring volunteer who gives their time, energy, and heart without seeking recognition. Someone who goes the extra mile to make others feel warm, welcomed, and safe.

Celebrating creativity, culture, and the spirit of a true warm welcome.

The Warmest Welcome Award captures the joyful heart of our movement—recognising the spaces that radiate warmth, inclusivity, and imagination. From colourful community hubs to cosy village halls, this award celebrates the creativity and culture that make every visitor feel instantly at home.

It’s a fun, uplifting recognition of those who turn the simple act of welcome into something truly memorable, spaces where laughter, connection, and kindness fill the air.

This award could be for a volunteer or member of the team who gives guests the warmest welcome or a space that has developed new ways to make sure the space is inclusive, accessible and welcoming to all.

Celebrating creativity, innovation, and new ideas that inspire others.

The Creative Spaces Award recognises projects and people who find creative or new ways to make their Warm Welcome Space more accessible, engaging, or sustainable. From inventive community activities to new partnership models, this award celebrates innovation at every scale.

This could include creative approaches to promoting your space, supporting guests and making them feel safe, outreach work, storytelling, recruiting and supporting volunteers and fundraising to find different ways to make your space more accessible to guests. We also want to celebrate the ways you find solutions to difficult problems. The list is endless.

It’s about turning challenges into opportunities, sparking new ideas that can inspire and be shared across the whole of the Warm Welcome network. This award celebrates your ideas and encourages spaces to learn from each other.

Celebrating the connections that bridge divides and bring people together.

Thousands and maybe even millions of new friendships are shaped in Warm Welcome Spaces right across the UK. It all starts with a shared cuppa, bringing different people together and turning strangers into neighbours and friends. Sometimes these friendships are unlikely or unusual, crossing cultural, faith and generational divides. We want to celebrate all the friendships that have been born out of visiting a Warm Welcome Space.

The Unlikely Friendships Award celebrates the stories of friendship that have grown within a Warm Welcome Space – those moments where people who might never have met elsewhere have formed real, lasting bonds. We’re inviting you to share a story from your space that captures the power of connection: an example of an unlikely or surprising friendship that blossomed in your Warm Welcome Space.

Recognising partnerships that amplify impact and strengthen communities.

The Warm Welcome Campaign has partnership at its roots. By working together, we can achieve so much more and create a thriving network of hope and reconnection fuelled by human warmth.

The Community Connector Award honours those who bring people, organisations, and ideas together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Whether it’s a local partnership between a Warm Welcome Space and a local business, a food bank, a cross-sector initiative, or a grassroots network linking neighbours. We know that there are thousands of partnerships that have been forged in Warm Welcome Spaces, and many of you connect and coordinate your work with other spaces in your community. This award celebrates the power of connection in action. It's about teamwork, trust, and the shared belief that we can achieve more when we work side by side.