Welcome doesn’t begin with a service. It begins with a relationship.
When thinking about supporting newcomers in the UK, we understandably focus on immigration systems, housing, and legal status. Far less attention is paid to the process of integration and how people develop a sense of belonging.
People who have fled precarious situations have simple needs, but they can be challenging to address. How does someone find help in a place they’ve never lived before? Who do they trust to give them advice on immigration, healthcare or housing? How do they find work, learn English, enrol their children in school or meet people in a new community?
We’ve funded research that has reinforced what many organisations had been telling us. Working across the UK, Neighbourly Lab are mapping how important it is for newcomers to get both specialist help and routes back into social life – through friendships, groups and shared activities.
In many cases, community activities also act as the gateway for people to access help, work out who to trust, and address their wellbeing needs. This is critical, as we know the factors that drive migration also generate trauma in families escaping war, poverty and abuse.
Many organisations involved in this ‘Welcome’ work are doing far more than delivering services. They’re coordinating referrals, convening partnerships, advocating for improvements to local systems and creating trusted spaces where newcomers can build relationships and confidence. In short, they’re influencing and improving local conditions for Welcome.
The organisations making the biggest difference are creating the conditions for people to rebuild their lives.
That insight shaped our thinking.
And it shaped the design of our new Welcome for Newcomers fund. We’ll continue working with Neighbourly Lab over the coming months. Later this year, we’ll be sharing more on our blog on what we’re learning about what makes Welcome effective in practice.
Welcome for Newcomers fund
Across the UK, organisations work together in local communities to help people who are newcomers, stuck in the immigration system, or trying to rebuild their lives after successful asylum claims. These ‘ecosystems’ of Welcome are often volunteer-led and poorly funded. And they are responding to growing demand and complex individual needs, whilst facing rising operating costs and uncertain funding. Typically, this work is anchored in deep knowledge of locality, built up over many years, and sustained by strong personal and organisational relationships.
Through the Welcome for Newcomers fund, we’re looking to support organisations and partnerships that bring together three interconnected elements of Welcome:
- Specialist support, whether delivered directly or through trusted referral pathways.
- Social and community activities that foster belonging, participation and connection.
- Work that strengthens local Welcome by improving collaboration between services, amplifying newcomer voices and influencing local systems.
We want to support and help strengthen organisations and partnerships rooted in their communities with access to safe, accessible physical spaces where these relationships can grow.
Through the fund, we’ll award 20 grants of £200,000 over three years to organisations and partnerships across the UK. The funding is designed to be flexible, supporting organisations’ so they can continue delivering and strengthening their Welcome work over the long term, alongside a relationship with a dedicated Grants Manager.
We know one fund won’t solve every challenge facing newcomers or the organisations that support them. But we hope it will strengthen the local organisations and partnerships that make Welcome possible every day, while continuing to learn alongside the sector about what works and where philanthropy can have the greatest impact.
The Welcome for Newcomers Fund opens on 15 July 2026. Join our webinar on 14 July to learn whether the fund is right for you. If your organisation or partnership is already delivering this kind of work, we’d encourage you to read the guidance and explore whether the fund is the right fit.
