WHAT WE DO
At the Happy Baby Community, we want to make sure we protect and empower each other, through shared knowledge and understanding. We meet to learn from one another and to feel strong and supported - able to work, study, volunteer, and help others in need.
(Image above ‘ The Sleeping Baby’ used by kind permission from Anita Klein)
we provide
OUR COMMUNITY HUBS
Happy Baby Community runs six community hubs across London and Surrey, each within easy reach of where our mothers and babies are living — in Thornton Heath, Stratford, Acton, Barnet, Redhill and Crawley, welcoming families from across Sussex and Surrey as well as Greater London. Every hub is built around shared meals, activities and workshops, giving mothers and babies the chance to connect with others who understand exactly what they're going through. More than a drop-in service, these hubs are where community is built.
ante-natal support
Midwives, birth doulas and breastfeeding specialists are available to support and advise us through our pregnancies and beyond. They ensure that we have access to the vital information we need for enjoyable and safe experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.
PARENTING
For most new parents, there's a safety net close by, a mother, a sister, a friend who's done this before, someone to call at 3am or to drop round with a meal. For the women in our community, that network has often been left behind, sometimes across a continent, sometimes forever. Happy Baby Community steps into that gap. Our team and volunteers offer the kind of active, hands-on support family would usually provide, practical evidenced own language guidance through the everyday challenges of raising a baby or small child, a reassuring voice when something feels wrong and the reassurance that comes from not having to figure it all out alone.
MOVEMENT & COMMUNITY:
ZUMBA, SWIMMING & YOGA
Movement is one of the simplest, most powerful ways we build energy, confidence and connection at Happy Baby Community. Whether it's dancing together at Zumba, learning to swim, or practising trauma-informed yoga suitable for those of us who are pregnant or recovering from physical injury, these sessions give mothers a chance to feel strong in their bodies and joyful in each other's company. Research consistently shows that group physical activity does more than support fitness, it builds social bonds, reduces stress and creates a sense of belonging.
LUNCH and food parcels
We sit down every week for a family-style lunch cooked by FoodCycle. A number of wonderful organisations including the Felix Project donate healthy food parcels that we can take home with us to share with our families.
VOLUNTEERING
The Happy Baby Community welcomes women from the community who would like to become helpers or volunteers — whether that's supporting with other people's children, helping in the kitchen, or using their specialist skills such as English teachers, translators, doctors.
Our dedicated volunteer programme encourages women to build on what they already know, supporting them to gain additional qualifications such as interpreting skills and creating a genuine pathway from community member to volunteer. Volunteering here isn't just about giving time — it's a chance to grow in confidence, build recognised skills and become part of the team that supports others the way they themselves were once supported.
Mums Online
Mums Online is our virtual community, open to any mother in our network wherever she's based. Running every Wednesday and Friday, sessions include English classes, children's singing and activities, welfare drop-ins and perinatal care, all delivered live, with translation support where needed. For mothers who've been moved outside our core service area, relocated at short notice, or simply can't get to a group in person, Mums Online means the connection and support don't stop.
Welfare: Help & Advice Team
Navigating life in a new country can be confusing and overwhelming, from registering with a GP to securing a nursery place, understanding your rights with the Home Office, or facing more complex housing and immigration issues. Our welfare team offers one-to-one help in your own language, guiding you through whatever you're facing — whether that's a straightforward form, an entitlement you didn't know you had, or a complicated situation that needs more time and expertise.
post-natal support
Our postnatal support is comprehensive, staying close to mothers and babies through some of the most vulnerable weeks of their lives. We offer regular calls and support around feeding, post-birth recovery, and the health of both mother and baby. Critically, we stay in touch consistently — not a one-off check-in — helping women access the wider support systems they need, whenever they need them, for as long as it takes.
OUTREACH VISITS
Happy Baby Community ambassadors work to visit as many places across London as possible where our community may not yet know about the support we offer. This includes food banks and other charities, as well as hostels and hotels — reaching women wherever they are, so that no one is left unaware that help exists.
english lessons
Improving our English gives us the chance to gain essential skills needed to navigate services, job applications, studies and social interaction. We also want to help prepare our children to enrol in English-speaking schools and nurseries.
CRAFT & CREATIVE ACTIVITIES
Our craft sessions bring women together around shared, hands-on activity — knitting, drawing, jewellery-making and cooking among them. These activities offer a therapeutic space where women can relax, connect with one another, and develop practical skills, often learning from members of our own community with genuine expertise to share. The benefits extend beyond the activity itself: structured, sociable time spent creating something has a well-evidenced role in reducing stress and building a sense of purpose and belonging.
LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Happy Baby Community runs a bespoke leadership programme, supporting community members to step into leadership and peer support roles within the organisation. We're proud of our Community Leaders Board — women with lived experience of the asylum system who sit at the highest level of strategic decision-making, shaping the priorities and direction of HBC itself. Beyond the Board, further opportunities open up within the staff team as funding allows, reflecting our deep commitment to being led, wherever possible, by the very women and communities we exist to serve.
REFERRALS
Happy Baby Community is very happy to accept referrals — whether from individuals themselves, or from other organisations supporting someone who meets our criteria. Every referral is handled in the person's own language, and we aim to respond within 48 hours. Happy Baby Community does not operate a waiting list.
BIRTH SUPPORT
We offer one to one support for any mum giving birth alone from our experienced team of doulas.
LISTENING TEAM
Many of the women in our community have lived through profound trauma, displacement, violence, loss. Being listened to, by someone who understands, is one of the most powerful steps toward healing. Our Listening Team is made up of women trained in active listening skills, through our own team and the Samaritans training programme, offering peer support both online and face-to-face. Whatever a woman is facing, a crisis in this moment, or something carried from the past, she is listened to by our trained team and supported to access longer-term support where it's needed.
NEW BABY BUNDLES, HOSPITAL BAGS & CLOTHING
Having a new baby can be overwhelming, especially when there are so many expensive things to buy. We provide hospital bags so mothers have everything they need when they go into hospital to give birth, alongside new baby bundles and clothing for children, provided with the support of our partners at Pram Depot and Little Village. These essentials help relieve some of that pressure, in what should be a special time, and mean no mother has to go without the basics for her baby or her children.
EVERY CHILD CAN THRIVE:
ACTIVITIES FOR UNDER 3'S
Raising a small child while navigating the asylum system brings huge challenges most parents never have to face, unstable housing, food insecurity, disrupted sleep and isolation from the wider support networks families usually rely on. Our Every Child Can Thrive activities are designed to meet these challenges head-on, giving babies and toddlers the stimulation their development depends on: movement and play that build motor skills, sensory food exploration that builds confidence around eating, and rhyme and language sessions delivered in every mother tongue.
The Employment Pathway
Working with partners including Routes Collective and Sophie Hayes Foundation, the Happy Baby Employment Pathway supports women to convert their existing qualifications and experience into recognised UK qualifications suited to future employment. This includes support to gain qualifications in English and IT skills, alongside work experience, training and apprenticeships. We place particular focus on roles on the UK's job shortage list, including healthcare and childcare, helping women build toward stable, meaningful careers in sectors where their skills are needed.
How We Make Change Happen
The Happy Baby Community follows a Theory Of Change model aligned with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need. This model recognises that meeting basic needs is crucial before mums and their babies can pursue higher-level goals and feel able to thrive.
Research & Reports
Find out more about our Research and Reports
Safe Start - Our Perinatal Program
From the moment a mother reaches us, she is welcomed in her own language. She leads, choosing one-to-one doula support, breastfeeding guidance, birth preparation, community sessions, or simply a reassuring voice on the phone — every pathway is valid, and every woman decides what's right for her. Up to half of the mothers we support choose dedicated one-to-one doula care, and when a doula is at the hospital supporting a birth, every other mother still has someone to call, whatever the hour, whatever the worry. A familiar, interpreted and trained voice always answers.
Our support doesn't stop once the baby arrives. Our peer support programme, staffed by trained women who have walked this path themselves, provides weekly calls throughout the postnatal period, reaching mothers with less engagement and those who have moved away, so that no one faces low mental health or breastfeeding difficulties in isolation. We also offer translated health resources covering areas like induction of labour, anaemia in pregnancy, and care for survivors of FGM — because good information, in the right language, is part of good care.
Illustration ‘Fingers and Toes’ with kind permission of Anita Klein
Every Child Can Thrive - Supporting children under 3
The first 1,001 days of a child's life are the period of fastest brain development a human being will ever experience. Children in the asylum system face an exceptional concentration of adversity — many arrive having already experienced war, displacement or bereavement, and go on to face cramped and unstable housing, food insecurity, disrupted sleep, and repeated moves that sever the routines and relationships they depend on. At Happy Baby Community, we make sure those first days are filled with safety, stimulation and love instead.
Our Every Child Can Thrive programme responds to this with evidence-based play and activities designed around what young children need most: sensory food exploration that builds nutrition and confidence around eating, movement and physical play that supports gross motor development and emotional regulation, and multilingual rhyme and language sessions that honour every mother tongue while building the foundations for school readiness. The evidence is clear — the single most powerful protective factor against adversity is a stable, nurturing relationship between a child and a caring adult, and play delivered in a safe, consistent community is one of the most significant interventions available.
For children whose wider lives feel uncertain, Happy Baby Community becomes a stable reference point — somewhere they feel safe, seen, and secure enough to grow. Regular attendance builds a real and measurable difference: greater emotional security, increased confidence in exploring new spaces, improved ability to share and take turns, and children arriving at school ready to learn, connect and belong.
Our Partners
