Bringing Hope
Charity 1122288
Overview
Summary
Bringing Hope appears to occupy a distinctive intermediary role between people affected by serious violence or crime, their families and public systems. Its model combines direct pastoral and therapeutic support with advocacy, training and challenge to agencies whose policies affect clients. Rooted in a Christian ethos but explicitly working across faiths, it seems particularly oriented toward culturally competent work with African Caribbean communities and toward family-centred routes to rehabilitation and social inclusion.
Operational geography
Evidence and reasoning
Supporting evidence
Handsworth
Confidence: low
Bringing Hope gives a contact and office address in Handsworth. However, an administrative address alone is not evidence of operational activity, and the available evidence does not establish delivery in the ward.
- Bringing Hope website, homepage and service pages
The charity gives its contact address as Bringing Hope Charity in Handsworth, Birmingham. - Charity Commission register, Bringing Hope (1122288), financial year ending 31 March 2025
The current Charity Commission entry lists a charity address in Handsworth, Birmingham and states that the charity does not own and/or lease land or property.
Soho and Jewellery Quarter
Confidence: medium
The organisation's website identifies HMP Birmingham as a setting where it delivers its Damascus Road prison and community programme and describes an established working relationship with the prison. The current Birmingham ward map places HMP Birmingham in the Soho and Jewellery Quarter ward area. The website does not provide a dated current contract or delivery timetable, so continued present-day delivery at the prison cannot be confirmed with high confidence.
- Bringing Hope website, Second Chance Program
The charity states that its 12-week Damascus Road Prison and Community Programme is devised and delivered by Bringing Hope and has been delivered in HMP Birmingham since 2011. - Bringing Hope website, HMP Birmingham
The charity describes HMP Birmingham as turning to Bringing Hope during incidents and says its work affects both prisoners and their families. - GOV.UK, Birmingham Prison
HMP Birmingham is located in Birmingham. - Birmingham City Council / Soho and Handsworth neighbourhood-plan ward map
The current ward map places HMP Birmingham in the Soho and Jewellery Quarter ward area.
Remaining uncertainties
- The evidence identifies a contact and office address in Handsworth and established prison delivery at HMP Birmingham, but it does not identify the locations of most community-based one-to-one, family, counselling, mentoring or crisis-support work.
- Bringing Hope's website describes the HMP Birmingham relationship in present-tense language, but its pages contain legacy material and do not give a current delivery date, contract period or programme timetable.
- The Charity Commission's current 2025 return says the charity operates in Birmingham City as well as Bristol, Coventry, Dudley, Manchester, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton and throughout London. This supports a national-scale footprint rather than a neighbourhood-only identity, but does not show the intensity, type or current status of delivery in each place.
- Partnerships with HMP Birmingham and the Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Service materially connect the charity to prison and resettlement pathways, but the available evidence does not specify which Birmingham neighbourhoods receive referrals or community follow-up.
- The proposed 'Hub of Hope' is described as a fundraising objective rather than an established site and has therefore not been treated as a current operational location.
Additional evidence needed
- The trustees' annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025, or a current impact report, setting out active projects, delivery venues, referral geography and beneficiary locations.
- Confirmation from Bringing Hope or HMP Birmingham of whether the Damascus Road programme is currently scheduled or contracted at HMP Birmingham.
- A current service-location list distinguishing the contact/office address from venues used for client appointments, groups, family work and events.
- Current partnership documentation with the Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Service and A-Vision for Empowerment CIC showing the geographic scope of joint delivery.
Areas of work
- Amateur Sport
- Disability
- Economic/community Development/employment
- Education/training
- Other Charitable Purposes
- Religious Activities
- The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives
- The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
Who they help
- Children/young People
- Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
- People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin
How they help
- Acts As An Umbrella Or Resource Body
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space
- Provides Human Resources
- Provides Services
- Sponsors Or Undertakes Research
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
Family is treated as part of rehabilitation infrastructure
The organisation appears to see offending, exclusion and recovery as relational rather than individual problems. It may use support for families not only as welfare provision, but as a practical route to reducing harm and sustaining change.
Why it matters
This distinguishes Bringing Hope from services focused solely on an individual offender or client. It suggests potential value as a connector between prison-based work, community support and family systems.
Show evidence
“Families are at the heart of all we do.”
Source:Organisation“We provide one-to-one pastoral care, family therapy, group work, mentoring and peer support.”
Source:Organisation
It combines care with systemic challenge
Bringing Hope appears to operate both as a frontline support provider and as a critical friend to public agencies. Its operating model may therefore include translating lived experience into challenge, advice and institutional influence.
Why it matters
This helps explain why its stated services extend beyond counselling and mentoring to consultancy, advocacy, research and training. The organisation may be positioned to identify where systems contribute to exclusion, not only respond to its consequences.
Show evidence
“We address the root causes of social exclusion and crime and challenge the systems that perpetuate injustice.”
Source:Organisation“We act as critical friends to public service agencies whose policies have an impact on those with whom we work.”
Source:Organisation“How the charity helps includes advocacy/advice/information, research and acting as an umbrella or resource body.”
Source:Charity Commission
Cultural competence is presented as a strategic capability
The emphasis on African Caribbean heritage suggests that Bringing Hope may be responding to a perceived gap between mainstream services and communities affected by violence, criminalisation or exclusion. Its faith-based identity appears to be used inclusively rather than as a boundary on access.
Why it matters
This may make the organisation a valuable partner where trust, cultural understanding and engagement with people labelled hard-to-reach are limiting factors for other services.
Show evidence
“We are culturally competent – able to relate effectively to people from a range of social contexts, particularly those of an African Caribbean heritage.”
Source:Organisation“We uphold our Christian ethos by working with people from a wide range of faiths and social contexts.”
Source:Organisation“The charity helps people of a particular ethnic or racial origin.”
Source:Charity Commission
- There is no evidence on the scale, locations or continuity of prison and community delivery.
- It is unclear which public agencies, employers or voluntary organisations are active partners.
- No outcome data shows whether family-centred or culturally competent approaches improve safety, wellbeing, employment or reoffending-related outcomes.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent annual reports, service statistics and outcome measures, separated by programme and client group.
- Evidence of referral pathways, partnerships and the organisation's role in local violence-reduction, prison or family-support networks.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
ACTIVITIES COMMENCED IN APRIL 2008 INCLUDED WORKING WITH PEOPLE OF ALL AGES AND RACES IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT IMPROVEMENTS IN SOCIAL COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL SAFETY
Charity objects
AS AN EXPRESSION OF CHRISTIAN WITNESS, LOVE AND CONCERN, TO UNDERTAKE ALL OR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:- 1 TO ADVANCE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) ENGAGING WITH CHRISTIAN GROUPS IN ORDER TO PROMOTE PRAYER AND MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN LINE WITH BRINGING HOPE'S FOCUS; 2 THE RELIEF OF PERSONS WHO ARE IN CONDITIONS OF NEED, BY REASON OF YOUTH, AGE, ILL HEALTH, DISABILITY, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR OTHER DISADVANTAGE, PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO ARE AFFECTED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY THROUGH THE MISUSE OF DRUGS, ALCOHOL, GUNS AND KNIVES; 3 TO ADVANCE EDUCATION AND TRAINING AND TO PROMOTE AND PROTECT GOOD HEALTH (INCLUDING FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT PHYSICAL HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH, EMOTIONAL HEALTH AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH) THROUGH THE PROVISION OF PASTORAL CARE TO THOSE AT RISK IN RELATION TO THE ABOVE; AND 4 TO PROVIDE OR ASSIST IN THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE FOR RECREATION OR OTHER LEISURE TIME OCCUPATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE NEED OF SUCH FACILITIES BY REASON OF THEIR YOUTH, AGE, INFIRMITY OR DISABILITY, FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OR SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES WITH THE OBJECT OF IMPROVING THEIR CONDITIONS OF LIFE.