The Bridges to Belonging project aims to increase access to quality mental health and wellbeing support for people seeking asylum and refugees.
Over two years starting from January 2024, we will work with around 400 people seeking asylum and refugees, across Wales and Northern Ireland – bringing the peer support model to community organisations who will then be able to carry it forward independently after the project's conclusion.
What is the aim of the project?
Through the project people with lived experience of seeking asylum in the UK will be able to come together and share experiences and knowledge about navigating systems, and issues that are important to them.
Over 8 weeks, discussing group-chosen topics such as trauma, anxiety, racism, and stigma – as well as the Foundation’s top tips for mental health – participants will be able to gain understandings and build community relationships that can improve their mental health.
We will train peer leaders among the participants to cofacilitate sessions, which will take place in the community conversations model format.
Community Conversations
‘Community Conversations’ are group discussions aiming to explore topics within the context of the community.
Education on a mental health topic, combined with a creative activity, prompts conversations on ways of supporting mental health.
The model builds on the strength of peer support, increasing mental health literacy and the benefits of creativity on mental health.
How will we use the Community Conversations model?
We will train partner organisation staff in using the model, and provide them with a toolkit full of session plans, slide decks, and activities so that they can put on sessions independently in the future.
Learnings taken from experiences in facilitating these sessions will be used to gather evidence on how community organisation can take on the community conversation model – and ensure that more organisations can make use of these methods in the future. This will allow us to expand the model and reach more communities.
We will also use the project to strengthen our advocacy work, working with experts by experience to push for change at a policy level.