Our Programmes
Peace Feast
Sharing a meal together gives people from different cultures and faiths the opportunity to meet and build friendships.
Sharing Festivals
We bring people together around religious festivals and feasts — like Ramadan and Christmas — to break down barriers and challenge stereotypes.
b.friend
This project provides one-to-one support for refugees and asylum-seekers in Bristol, who may be isolated or struggling.
Bristol Welcome Events
We organise special events and days out for refugees and asylum seekers, giving them a break from the challenges of daily life.
Cultural Exchange
We organise trips to connect people in the UK and the Middle East, facilitating opportunities for perceptions to be changed and for friendships to be built.
Training
We provide cultural awareness training for working crossculturally, and refugee support training for groups working with refugees, asylum-seekers, and vulnerable migrants.
Refulingua
We enable refugees to take a step towards employment by tutoring people in conversational Arabic.
Our Team
DAN GREEN
Dan is the co-founder and Director of Bridges. He leads Bridges’ cultural exchange programs between the UK and the Middle East, as well as coordinating local initiatives and training in Bristol.
SAM SAYER
Sam is the Project Manager of b.friend, providing one-to-one support for asylum seekers and refugees through our amazing volunteers.
BUSHRA ALSAKKAF
Originally from Yemen, Bushra is our Refugee Engagement Worker and is responsible for organising our programme of social events for refugees and asylum seekers.
KAREN GREEN
Karen runs the Middle East b.friend programme, training volunteers to support refugees who have recently arrived in Bristol through the Resettlement scheme.
KATIE COLLIER
Katie is our volunteer fundraiser, helping us to research and apply for grants that help us to develop and grow.
MARK & SARAH EVANS
Sarah and Mark are the Bridges representatives for Cardiff, Wales. They are also the visionaries behind Peace Feast!
ROSE CODNER
Rose is our RefuLingua Project Manager and Office Administrator. She coordinates the Arabic tutoring programme and keeps us running smoothly.
SAMIRA BELHAJ
Samira is our Design & Photography Volunteer. She helps us with our communications and publicity.
Why We Do This Work
We live in an incredibly interconnected world, but one that is also fractured and divided. Violence and fear between people of different faiths, cultures and nationalities seems to be constantly in the news, and at times it can be difficult to find positive stories of diverse people getting along well. Britain today is a diverse country too, with communities from many different cultures and faiths living side by side with one another, but at times having little meaningful interaction. There is a profound lack of understanding and trust, and this has lead to a marked increase in hate crime motivated by religion and ethnicity in recent years. The need to foster better understanding between people of different cultures and faiths has perhaps never felt more pertinent.
Our Strategy
Our strategy is simple – we seek to give people who would not ordinarily meet the chance to do so, and we promote friendship and understanding between them. Much of the fear and prejudice that exists in our world does so because of ignorance, misperceptions, and lack of connection. Bridges for Communities wants to address these at the grass-roots level; creating spaces for positive interaction between people, and sharing positive stories wherever possible. We also seek to support some of the most marginalised in society, namely asylum seekers and refugees, and we provide training for people who want to build bridges in their local communities.