Information
Our services
We offer a range of specialized services tailored to meet your individual needs. Our approach is focused on understanding and responding to what you require, providing effective and practical solutions.
ARTICLES
Delivered in partnership with Healthwatch Redbridge, the Togetherness Café engaged more than a hundred South Asian, African, Afro-Caribbean and Eastern European residents over ten weeks, reaching people that statutory services have consistently failed to hear from. The findings are stark: 100% did not trust the local authority, only 12% trusted health services, and 87% reported very poor mental health — with 88% linking that decline directly to their treatment by public services. Participants were clear that meaningful change requires genuine partnership and shared power, not further consultation. This report sets out what that shift needs to look like.
Developing Mental Health Interventions with South Asian Women in Newham: A Community Engagement and Policy Impact Project — led by the UCL research team of Dr Meena Khatwa, Dr Kelly Dickson and Jie Xu, in partnership with the London Borough of Newham and funded by Research England QR-PSF with UCL Public Policy — is the work that laid the foundations of our approach.
As community lead, Blossom Group went into every space where South Asian women could be found — gurdwaras, mosques, temples, salons, markets, shops, weddings, birthdays and door-to-door — and spoke to them in their own language, across Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Pothohari, Pahari, Farsi and Pashto. Twelve women volunteers from within these communities ran 16 Togetherness Cafés at the Saifi Trust in Manor Park, reaching 450 women aged 18 to 91.
The research was designed, delivered, analysed and taken forward by UCL, with six South Asian residents trained and paid as community researchers to shape the questions, recruit participants and lead the focus groups themselves. It demonstrated something simple but rarely proven: trust can be built with communities long dismissed as "hard to reach" — when you go to them, in their language, on their terms.
The impact reached well beyond the research itself. Six South Asian women were trained, paid and certified as community researchers, gaining skills and recognition that stay with them long after the project ends. Findings are shaping how Newham Council and the NHS think about mental health support for South Asian women, and the model — community-led, multilingual, delivered in the spaces women already trust — is now being drawn on by policymakers as a template for how to engage communities that services have consistently failed to reach.
UJALA – The Light Project (2024–2025) is what the 450 women asked for. Built on the ART framework — Accessible, Relevant, Trusted — UJALA embedded mental health into the everyday: kitchens, markets, gurdwaras, mosques, festivals, walking groups and radio dials. Delivered in Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi and English, it reached 731 direct one-to-one interactions, 1,348 attendees across 15 culturally rooted community events, and 521 women through Yoga 4 All and Walking Groups. 85 volunteers were trained as trusted voices within their own communities. And through NuSound Radio — which grew into Nagrecha Radio, the UK's first South Asian mental health broadcast channel, still on air today — UJALA has reached over 70,000 listeners. As one volunteer put it: "I never realised I could be a hero. On this project, I became important. Someone shone a light on me."
Our story
Preventing Diabetes Together — Walthamstow West PCN & Blossom CIC
A joint pilot with Walthamstow West Primary Care Network, funded by Waltham Forest Public Health, delivering culturally tailored Type 2 diabetes prevention to prediabetic adults who typically don't complete the standard 9-month NHS DPP because of language, digital, mobility, or access barriers. Delivered Nov 2025–Feb 2026 across five "one-stop" community workshops combining point-of-care testing, PCN dietitian input, NHS App support, and social prescribing in a single session. The pilot identified 374 patients, worked intensively with 62 attendees plus family carers, completed 91 health checks, and integrated 28 VCSE and statutory partners. Fully evaluated using mixed methods, with a clear replication pathway across other PCNs — ready to commission at scale for boroughs where standard prevention pathways underperform in ethnic minority and low-income populations.
Blossom Group — Culturally Driven Smoking Cessation (Swap to Stop)
A culturally embedded smoking cessation programme running across Waltham Forest and Newham, targeting South Asian, African/Afro-Caribbean and Somali communities where tobacco use (including shisha, paan, and snuff) is woven into social and cultural life and standard leaflet-based cessation approaches consistently fail. Delivered Jan–May 2025 through three weekly Togetherness Cafés (50+ attendees each), two Eid celebrations (200+ each), a three-part Stratford Library campaign reaching 600+ residents, and a faith-sensitive Ramadan campaign that achieved a 3% immediate quit rate — a total direct reach of 1,500+ individuals, 65% women, 67% in low-income households, and 55% facing language barriers. The programme is now piloting storytelling and community drama in Urdu, Bengali and Somali, paired with VBA+ brief interventions and on-the-spot referrals to vape kits and behavioural support. For commissioners and public health teams tackling entrenched smoking disparities in ethnic minority and low-literacy populations, this offers a ready-to-scale, culturally authentic delivery model that reaches people traditional stop-smoking services don't — with clear opportunities to co-develop the evidence base alongside NHS and academic partners.
Blossom Group — Drugs & Alcohol Awareness in Muslim Communities, Waltham Forest (2023–2024)
A faith-sensitive drugs and alcohol awareness programme delivered in partnership with Public Health Waltham Forest and local mosques and Muslim community venues, tackling a public health issue that remains heavily stigmatised and largely invisible in mainstream service data. Substance misuse in Muslim communities is chronically underreported because shame, faith concerns, and family reputation keep people away from statutory drug and alcohol services — meaning need is systematically underestimated and support routinely misses those who require it most. Over 2023–2024, Blossom conducted a formal needs assessment with 1,200+ community members, capturing lived experience and unmet need at a scale rarely achieved in this population, and delivered 12 awareness sessions in mosques and community centres, including a dedicated women-only session that engaged 19 women in a safe, gender-appropriate space where these conversations are otherwise near-impossible. The work draws on Blossom's Accessible, Relevant, Trusted (ART) model and its established relationships with faith leaders, delivering messaging that respects Islamic values while opening honest conversations about addiction, family impact, and pathways to support. Backed by Public Health Waltham Forest and grounded in genuine community trust, this programme offers commissioners both a substantial evidence base on unmet need in a hidden-harm population and a proven, culturally credible delivery route into it — with clear scope to scale into referral partnerships with local drug and alcohol services.
Why Reports from The King’s Fund, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Nuffield Trust and Others Are Included in the Blossom Group
These organizations produce evidence-based, high-quality research on social issues that align with the goals and focus areas of the Blossom Group. Including their reports helps the group:
-
Stay Informed with Credible Evidence
These are well-established, respected think tanks and charities. Their reports provide reliable data and insights on health, social care, poverty, inequality, and community wellbeing — all central to the Blossom Group’s mission. -
Understand Broader Social Contexts
Blossom doesn’t work in a vacuum. Reports from these bodies help members understand the bigger picture — from policy trends to lived experiences across the UK. -
Support Decision-Making and Strategy
Access to this research helps the group make smarter decisions, design better interventions, and argue for funding or policy changes with solid backing. -
Promote Learning and Shared Knowledge
Including reports from external organizations encourages shared learning across the group — so members can build on the latest thinking rather than reinventing the wheel. -
Advocate More Effectively
When pushing for change, citing well-regarded sources like The King’s Fund or the Joseph Rowntree Foundation gives more weight and legitimacy to the group’s arguments.
Meet our team
Behind every service we provide is a dedicated team of professionals, each bringing their unique expertise and enthusiasm to our business.
Meet our team
Behind every service we provide is a dedicated team of professionals, each bringing their unique expertise and enthusiasm to our business.
