Together4Bristol : Bridges News: Highlights, Headlines and New Opportunities!

Bridges News: Highlights, Headlines and New Opportunities!

Bridges News February 2023

Dear friends, It's been an exciting start to 2023 at Bridges, with the launch of a new 3-year strategy, a brand new website and scaling up of several of our projects for the new year. Here's a quick round-up of our latest stories, links to our new Strategy and Impact Report, and ways you can get involved this year.

After lots of listening, discussing and strategising, we are very excited to share our brand new 3-Year Strategy - available here. Huge thanks to Lime Green Consulting for expertly guiding the review and decision-making process, Imagine Foundation and Quartet Community Foundation for funding this important piece of work, and to everyone who shared their insights and wisdom.

2023 off to a flyer Yes, literally off to a flyer, with an Afghan kite festival in partnership with St Pauls Church in Southville this week making sure of that! But so did the re-launch of RefuLingua in January, offering small, friendly, conversation-based classes in Syrian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, Pashto and Dari (spoken in Afghanistan) and Somali - you can find out more on our website, or follow on Instagram.

Our Walk With Me events are also back up and running, and we were extremely grateful to Tyntesfield and the National Trust for kindly hosting us for two men's walks in January, enabling people who are seeking asylum in this country to get outdoors, enjoy some exercise and get to know our volunteers. Finally, we're really looking forward to the first Peace Feast of the year - Friday 24th February, 7-9pm at Hartcliffe Methodist Church. Book your ticket today!

After a busy year in 2022, you can see the highlights from all our projects in our Annual Impact Report - available here.

Stitching Together One of our programmes that had an extraordinary year was Stitching Together, with 143 women taking part in some wonderful workshops, from dressmaking to quiltmaking. 28 women even sold their hand-embroider cushions to esteemed artist Christopher Farr. We’ve been able to give many students sewing machines to carry on honing their skills at home and at least two have set up their own sewing businesses. Thanks to Arnolfini, Alice Kettle, Borderlands, Bristol Quilters and our brilliant volunteers for the time, energy and skills they contributed!

People are at the heart of everything we do and we wanted to share an example of what our work is about on a week to week basis. Thanks to Khaltoum, Mohamdain, Anne and Dave for sharing your story: