Learnings of the Bristol Warm Welcome Network: Mentoring Provision

One of the greatest privileges of hosting the Bristol Warm Welcome Network is seeing, first-hand, the life-changing impacts that these spaces can have. What may begin as simply a warm, welcoming room can become the very thing that helps someone change their life.

For example, at a community cafe in Bristol, we met a man called John (not his real name). John had worked in the same industry for decades. He had been drinking heavily, and was made redundant during the Covid pandemic. He then suffered a stroke and was told to stop going to the pub, otherwise he could die. All of his friends were still there though, and they didn’t keep in touch with him. John became very low. But a social prescriber recommended he try his local community cafe - and this helped him turn things around and feel better about himself and about life. There are all sorts of stories like John’s, big and small, across the country.

A key takeaway here is how the connection offered by a community space can sit side-by-side with more specialised, one-to-one support. Recovery isn’t just about receiving professional help - it’s also about finding new communities where people can belong, be encouraged, and build friendships that sustain them for the long term. Without that, many struggle to maintain employment or healthy routines once formal support ends.

Over three months, we mapped the mentoring and one-to-one support available across the city and spoke with 25 providers and Warm Welcome hosts. The message was clear: partnership matters. Specialist providers want to be able to signpost service users to community spaces, and volunteers want to be confident about where to direct people with needs beyond their expertise. But these links often happen in ad-hoc ways, if at all. Stronger, intentional partnerships would help both sides.

We also heard about the importance of a “warm handover.” It’s not enough to simply point someone towards a community space - often, people won’t attend unless they’re accompanied the first few times. One creative solution could be encouraging specialist mentors to meet people inside Welcoming Spaces, rather than in cafés. This way, the space itself becomes familiar, and the individual is more likely to keep coming back once other interventions finish.

Finally, many hosts reflected on how volunteering opportunities can be a vital stepping stone for people in recovery. When spaces can create flexible, meaningful volunteer roles - tailored to someone’s skills and interests - they don’t just meet immediate needs, but help them regain confidence, return to work, and find purpose. Imagining Warm Welcome spaces as “volunteering academies” opens up exciting possibilities for reintegration and hope.

At its heart, this work confirms what we’ve seen all along: to truly thrive, people need both individual support and a community where they belong. When these two meet, the results can be truly transformative. The more we recognise, celebrate, and connect with what’s already happening in Bristol, the more impact we will see in our city.

To explore anything in this blog post further please do not hesitate to reach out to alisha.palmer@goodfaith.org.uk