Impact
Creating lasting change, one person and one community at a time.
Since 2015, Unity for Integration Project has worked alongside individuals, families and communities to build confidence, strengthen relationships, create opportunities and develop a greater sense of belonging. Today, our work goes beyond delivering programmes. We are building skills, leadership, community knowledge and the infrastructure people need to participate, organise and lead.
Registered in 2015, UFIP has spent more than a decade creating opportunities for participation, learning and community-led change.
Reached through programmes, events, practical support, community activities, research and cultural initiatives.
Supported through training, mentoring, practical experience and opportunities to contribute their skills.
Developed through opportunities to take responsibility, facilitate, organise, represent communities and lead change.
We do not measure impact only by how many people attend. We look at what happens next — whether people feel they belong, develop skills, build relationships, gain confidence, take responsibility, become leaders and have greater influence over the decisions that affect their lives.
Impact that begins with belonging
Our programmes respond to immediate needs while creating longer-term opportunities for people to participate, develop, contribute and lead.
Belonging & Integration
We create welcoming spaces where migrants, refugees, students, families and long-term residents can build relationships and participate more fully in community life.
- Student Integration Programme
- Community Circles
- Cultural exchange and community events
- Signposting and practical community support
Health & Wellbeing
We create accessible, culturally responsive opportunities that help people reduce isolation, strengthen relationships and improve confidence and wellbeing.
- Women’s Wellness Circles
- Unity Wellness Connect
- Thrive Together
- Unity Skills & Wellbeing Hub
Skills & Opportunity
We help people build practical skills, confidence and experience that can support volunteering, employment, education and wider participation.
- Volunteer training
- Creative media development
- Digital participation
- Employability and practical skills
Children & Families
We create safe, positive opportunities where children can play, learn, eat, build friendships and experience new activities while families become more connected.
- Unity Summer Smiles
- Holiday food provision
- Family activities
- Creative and cultural experiences
Building people. Building leadership. Building community power.
People do not have to remain participants at UFIP. We create pathways for community members to volunteer, develop skills, take responsibility and grow into leadership.
Volunteers receive practical experience, mentoring and opportunities to contribute to events, media, programmes, outreach and community activities. As confidence and experience grow, people can move into facilitation, organising and leadership roles.
Integration should include influence, not just participation.
For UFIP, integration is not simply about helping people adapt to existing systems. It is also about creating opportunities for migrant and racialised communities to be heard, represented, valued and able to shape the communities and systems around them.
Voice
Creating platforms where people can tell their own stories and speak from lived experience.
Representation
Supporting migrant and racialised people to become visible as volunteers, leaders, creatives, researchers and contributors.
Leadership
Developing skills, confidence and real opportunities for people to take responsibility and lead.
Influence
Helping lived experience inform programmes, research, partnerships and conversations about issues affecting communities.
A home for community-led change
Unity Hub Glasgow is more than a venue. It provides permanent community infrastructure where people can meet, organise, learn, volunteer, create, research and build relationships.
Having a dedicated space means our communities have somewhere to develop ideas, build confidence, host activities, create partnerships and strengthen their own capacity.
Turning lived experience into knowledge
Communities should not only be the subjects of research. Their knowledge, experience and questions should help shape what is studied, understood and changed.
Our Food, Our Health
Exploring the relationship between food, culture, health, wellbeing and lived experience.
Knowledge rooted in community experience
Our Food, Our Health reflects UFIP’s growing role in community-led learning and research. It creates space for people’s experiences around food, culture and health to contribute to wider understanding.
This work represents an important shift from communities simply receiving services towards communities contributing knowledge, shaping questions and helping influence how their experiences are understood.
Programmes responding to real community needs
Our ongoing programmes turn these principles into practical action across wellbeing, integration, skills, families and research.
Unity Skills & Wellbeing Hub
Providing a community base for practical support, skills development, wellbeing activities and connection.
Community Circles
Bringing families and community members together through shared activities, cultural exchange and peer support.
Women’s Wellness Circles
Creating culturally responsive spaces where women can connect, strengthen confidence and support one another.
Student Integration Programme
Helping students and newcomers develop local knowledge, confidence, relationships and meaningful participation.
Unity Wellness Connect
Supporting wellbeing through connection, accessible activities and community-based support.
Thrive Together
Helping community members strengthen confidence, relationships, wellbeing and belonging.
Our Food, Our Health
Community-centred research exploring food, culture, health, wellbeing and lived experience.
Unity Summer Smiles
Free holiday food and activities creating a safe, welcoming environment for children and young people.
Impact in people’s own words
Behind every programme are individual experiences of confidence, connection, friendship and belonging.
❝UFIP gave me confidence again. I met people who genuinely cared, learnt new skills and realised I had something valuable to offer.
❝The volunteers welcomed us from the moment we arrived. It felt like joining a family rather than attending a project.
❝My children always ask when we are coming back. They feel safe, happy and excited every time they visit.
From grassroots action to community infrastructure
Since 2015, UFIP has grown while keeping community connection, lived experience and participation at the heart of its work.
Building the Foundation
UFIP began with a commitment to integration, cultural understanding, community participation and practical grassroots support.
Programmes, Volunteers & Partnerships
Our work expanded across wellbeing, skills, children and families, cultural exchange, volunteering and community support.
Unity Hub Glasgow
UFIP now has a permanent community base from which people can meet, learn, organise, volunteer, research, build relationships and lead.
Our impact is built through partnership
UFIP works with funders, voluntary organisations, researchers, community groups, public bodies, volunteers and local partners who share our commitment to stronger, fairer and more connected communities.
These relationships also help UFIP act as a bridge between communities and institutions — creating opportunities for lived experience to be heard and for communities to access knowledge, networks and support.
We listen to participants, volunteers, families and community members and use their experiences and ideas to shape activities, partnerships, research and future programmes.
Help us create the next chapter of impact
Take part, volunteer, partner with us or support our work and help create more opportunities for people to belong, develop, lead and influence change.