Taking our Chain of Hope to Parliament

This week is Warm Welcome Week, a time to celebrate the joy and positivity found in every Warm Welcome Space and, importantly, to raise awareness so more people can find a place of belonging close to home. Together, we’ve been chasing the January blues away with a kaleidoscope of orange, red, purple, and pink to represent the hope and connection found in every Warm Welcome Space.

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We’re humbled by the outpouring of support from local communities and the huge number of spaces registering with us, especially this winter. And this week, we were thrilled to announce that Leicester Cathedral’s Welcome Café is the 6,000th Warm Welcome Space to register with us!

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Our Chain of Hope’s Road Trip

Our Founding Patron, the Rt Hon Gordon Brown, calls Warm Welcome Spaces a “Chain of Hope” stretching across the country, bringing light and human warmth to people’s lives. We’ve taken that Chain of Hope on a road trip to Parliament to celebrate community spaces and share the impact they have on people’s lives right across the country.

Warm Welcome Champion Spaces joined parliamentarians, partners, corporate partners, and friends to hear the Warm Welcome story. The Warm Welcome Week Parliamentary reception was generously hosted by Lord Bailey of Paddington and Paul Davies MP. What an amazing way to shine a light on the power of community in Warm Welcome Week.

Messages of Hope

Our Parliamentary reception was buzzing with life, as community spaces, of all shapes and sizes and from all parts of the UK, joined together to celebrate, share stories and showcase their lifeline work with parliamentarians, funders and friends. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate were the order of the day, symbolising both the physical and human warmth of Warm Welcome Spaces. Coming together over a cuppa and sparking up a new conversation are at the heart of  these spaces. It’s where the magic starts. Empowerment and hope were key themes: empowering spaces, empowering Warm Welcome guests, empowering volunteers, building confidence and increasing hope and self-value.

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Warm Welcome Spaces are powered by volunteers and good-hearted neighbours give their time for free and make sure Warm Welcome Space doors are always open. During our reception, guests had a chance to chat with spaces about their lifeline work and see the visual and colourful Chain of Hope installation. Our Chain of Hope included hundreds of messages of Hope from so many Warm Welcome Spaces right across the UK, including the Community Kettle Intergenerational Hub, the Cosy Café run by St. Margaret's Centre and Playing Fields Community Café and Warm Hub, Great Lever Connected, Nottingham Women's Centre, Holborn Community Association, and Cardiff’s Pedal Power Café.

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Turning the tide on loneliness

Parliamentarians right across the political spectrum, joined together under the banner of turning the tide on loneliness, and adding their names to our colourful Chain of Hope.

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Guests were welcomed by Paul Davies MP, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tackling Loneliness and Connected Communities. Paul Davies paid tribute to the Warm Welcome Campaign and the growing network of more than 6,000 spaces and their enormous impact of reducing loneliness, saying spaces are making this a reality every day. He added: “What is so inspiring about Warm Welcome, is people initially came for the warmth, but now stay, often all year round, for the welcome, the community and friendship. I wish you all a hope-filled Warm Welcome Week.”

Growing the Chain of Hope

Warm Welcome’s Campaign Director, David Barclay joined Sam Farnfield, Director of  Pedal Power in Cardiff for a live Q&A.

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Sam shared that for more than 20 years, Pedal Power has been supporting inclusive cycling, volunteering and community connection. At the heart of this work is its cafe and cycling hub, which together function as a Warm Welcome Space, offering warmth, belonging and opportunity without pressure to spend. People are welcome to come in, sit down, take part and stay for as long as they need, whether or not they buy anything.

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Investing time

Sam said that sometimes new guests are anxious and nervous when they first walk through the door. And it takes time to make them feel at home but, bit by bit, they start to feel safe, and their confidence grows. Sam talked about nurturing new ideas and giving space to new groups from the community. Like a small group supporting people with MS and those recovering from a stroke. What started as a small gathering has now blossomed into a thriving group over the last few years. Sam says it’s all about giving people space to flourish.

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Stephen Timms MP, Minister for Disability and Social Security, thanked Sam and talked about the Warm Welcome Chain of Hope, with a clear call to action: “Let’s make the Chain of Hope longer and longer.”

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Stephen Timms went on to reflect on the barriers to breaking down isolation, loneliness, its human and economic costs, and the knock on effect on the NHS, mental health and on our country as a whole. He commended Warm Welcome Spaces for their vital work of reducing social isolation and loneliness.

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Building trust and growing confidence

Lord Bailey of Paddington reflected on his role as a trusted youth worker in Ladbroke Grove, drawing parallels between youth centres and Warm Welcome Spaces. He talked about the importance of building trust, stressing that you want people to come through your doors and feel safe, and over time feel that it’s a place of trust, somewhere young people can rely on, and somewhere where people give you time to talk or just be. Over time they will come back, because they know because they know you are always there. It’s something they can rely on.

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The benefit to your community is immeasurable

Another parallel was about empowering young people in the same way that spaces empower guests and their community. Lord Bailey shared a sign that used to hang over his youth worker door: ‘You Can’t Stay Here Forever.’ It was a reminder that your role is to help people leave the space in a better place, giving them support, building confidence and skills. Lord Bailey stressed the importance of helping them on their journey to independence.

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“Lots of what you do [as Warm Welcome Spaces] can’t be done by government. You help people move on, little by little. The human cost of your work and the benefit to your community is immeasurable. What starts as physical warmth, grows into intellectual warmth and into emotional warmth,” he said.

We all left the room with huge smiles and even more hope. Our Chain of Hope is growing every single day. In the last month alone, another 230 spaces have joined Warm Welcome, spreading hope even further across the UK.

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