New National Network Launches to Strengthen the Infrastructure of Local Welcome Across the UK
Released: December 2025
Neighbourly Lab has spent the past four years exploring how welcome is designed and experienced across the UK – our work has shown that welcome lives in many forms: in libraries and leisure centres, in city squares and digital neighbourhoods, and in the everyday gestures that help people feel at home. These insights are now shaping how we work nationally, through a new phase of collaboration: The Welcome Coalition.
A National Network for Welcome – Neighbourly Lab’s Role
The Welcome Coalition is a national network designed to support, inform, and amplify local welcoming efforts across the United Kingdom. Bringing together communities, practitioners, and organisations who share a belief in the power of welcome to strengthen society.
By linking local practice to national learning, the Coalition is creating a shared infrastructure for welcome – connecting initiatives, building evidence, and nurturing leadership at every level. It will help local success be shared and scaled, so the welcome people feel in one place can consistently and effectively reach others across the UK.
Neighbourly Lab plays a central leadership role within this initiative. In this capacity, we are helping to shape the Coalition’s strategy and evidence base – mapping and evaluating networks of welcome across the country.
Laying the Foundations with the Henry Smith Foundation
Within the Welcome Coalition – a new project funded by the Henry Smith Foundation is helping to lay these foundations. Through this work, we are building a clear picture of where welcome is working well and where community-based infrastructure needs support. By mapping and evaluating existing Welcome Hubs and networks, we aim to understand the details of what works, where support is most needed, and how these hubs can be strengthened.
“Strong evidence sits at the heart of responding well to people’s needs. We’re glad to support Neighbourly Lab as they map this diverse and inspiring field of local activity across the UK. We hope the work helps shape future investment and strengthens the support communities offer to people seeking sanctuary.” Rob Bell, Director of Safer Futures Programme, Henry Smith Foundation
Using participatory research, geographic and ecosystem mapping, the project will create a live digital map and “instance gallery” of best practice – that makes the landscape of welcome visible and shareable nationwide.
Peer researchers with lived experience will play an active role in this work, ensuring that local knowledge and insight remain at the heart of the learning. Together, these initiatives will provide the evidence base and tools to help communities replicate success and close the gaps in provision.
“Across the UK, people seeking safety arrive through many different routes, and our welcome infrastructure must be able to hold them all. Community Sponsorship will become an even more crucial element of that story, but it depends on – and benefits from – the strength of the wider ecosystem. This project will map that landscape, surface what works, and guide investment where it’s most needed, helping communities offer a confident, coherent welcome to every newcomer.” Susannah Baker, Founder and Director, The Pickwell Foundation
“Showing welcome and being hospitable is in the DNA of our communities across the UK. It’s part of who we are. But we know that making sure that everyone has the chance to experience that welcome is something that takes intentional effort and resources, and particularly given the current political climate in our country. That’s why we have come together as leaders and organisations to create the Welcome Coalition, to all add our unique expertise and efforts together to resource and equip local groups to do what they do best and provide a warm welcome for all newcomers.” David Barclay, Managing Partner, Good Faith Partnership
For media enquiries or further information, please contact:
beth@neighbourlylab.com
About Neighbourly Lab
Neighbourly Lab is a social research & innovation organisation committed to promoting more supportive, inclusive communities to strengthen social connection and belonging. Through participatory research, systems design, and national collaborations, Neighbourly Lab helps create more connected, equitable, and welcoming places to live.