Project Details
Layman's description
Find Your Village was established in November 2023 with funding from NHE England via the Inner City and East Integrated Care Partnership, and since March 2025 has been supported by a grant from Bristol City Family Hubs Service www.bristol.gov.uk/bristol-family-hubs.
The Find Your Village initiative aims to support families with children aged 0–2 by fostering peer connections, promoting community engagement, sharing parenting information, and signposting to relevant services. The project is a partnership between Barton Hill Activity Club and Barnardo’s, operating from the Wellspring Settlement as part of Bristol Family Hubs.
The group includes staff and volunteers who are Somali and Arabic speaking. The group reaches out particularly to migrant communities settling in Bristol, Somali and North African families. The groups support the celebration of cultures through storytelling, music, and food, helping to build identity, confidence, and community.
Find Your Village peer support groups help families to get the information they need and to resolve issues or uncertainty. They can explain things to people in their own language to support them to fully understand and feel able to ask questions. They help families navigate unfamiliar systems but also to connect their own background, “It feels safe, they start to relate to a new system through a cultural context that is safe and familiar.”
They use shared lived experience to build connections and trust with community members: “We know what it’s like when you are in a new place and can’t speak the language well and you don’t know anyone that you can connect with, it’s very hard. We can put ourselves in their shoes because we’ve experienced what they are now and can tell them ‘don’t worry I’ve been there, I know how it works, you should come, it will be fine’.”
They develop trust with health services through hosting practitioners like paediatricians and health visitors at the groups so parents can ask questions in a safe space with translation and time to talk through the medical advice and information in more depth, supporting families to navigate mainstream systems.
The Find Your Village initiative aims to support families with children aged 0–2 by fostering peer connections, promoting community engagement, sharing parenting information, and signposting to relevant services. The project is a partnership between Barton Hill Activity Club and Barnardo’s, operating from the Wellspring Settlement as part of Bristol Family Hubs.
The group includes staff and volunteers who are Somali and Arabic speaking. The group reaches out particularly to migrant communities settling in Bristol, Somali and North African families. The groups support the celebration of cultures through storytelling, music, and food, helping to build identity, confidence, and community.
Find Your Village peer support groups help families to get the information they need and to resolve issues or uncertainty. They can explain things to people in their own language to support them to fully understand and feel able to ask questions. They help families navigate unfamiliar systems but also to connect their own background, “It feels safe, they start to relate to a new system through a cultural context that is safe and familiar.”
They use shared lived experience to build connections and trust with community members: “We know what it’s like when you are in a new place and can’t speak the language well and you don’t know anyone that you can connect with, it’s very hard. We can put ourselves in their shoes because we’ve experienced what they are now and can tell them ‘don’t worry I’ve been there, I know how it works, you should come, it will be fine’.”
They develop trust with health services through hosting practitioners like paediatricians and health visitors at the groups so parents can ask questions in a safe space with translation and time to talk through the medical advice and information in more depth, supporting families to navigate mainstream systems.
Key findings
Evaluation report attached - Observations, quotes, evaluation questionnaires, observational data.
We have discussed the following list of potential mechanisms/functions for how our peer support may be working, and can see evidence to support them all being relevant and active in this group:
For Parents
• Replacing missed social connections
• Peer parenting structure and support – information, advice, discussion, modelling, containment
• Safe place to think creatively, challenge internalised racism, and enable assets
• Finding solutions to life challenges – Maslow’s hierarchy
• Developing trust with service providers in safe environment
• Activating their own capabilities to 'give back' to the community
For Children
• Birth after safe, connected, supported pregnancy
• Secure attachment relationships
• Structure for life rhythms & transitions
• Opportunities for play and social interaction – with peers and adults, in shared, familiar cultural activities
• Screen use limited
• Access to health-promoting agency offers
We have discussed the following list of potential mechanisms/functions for how our peer support may be working, and can see evidence to support them all being relevant and active in this group:
For Parents
• Replacing missed social connections
• Peer parenting structure and support – information, advice, discussion, modelling, containment
• Safe place to think creatively, challenge internalised racism, and enable assets
• Finding solutions to life challenges – Maslow’s hierarchy
• Developing trust with service providers in safe environment
• Activating their own capabilities to 'give back' to the community
For Children
• Birth after safe, connected, supported pregnancy
• Secure attachment relationships
• Structure for life rhythms & transitions
• Opportunities for play and social interaction – with peers and adults, in shared, familiar cultural activities
• Screen use limited
• Access to health-promoting agency offers
| Status | Active |
|---|---|
| Effective start/end date | 1/11/23 → … |
Fingerprint
Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.