Welcome Works
A key part of the gospel of Jesus is a heart to care for the poor, the broken, the lost, the needy and those who have suffered under injustice.
Therefore a key part of our vision to see Life Transformed Through Jesus is our heart to care for Woking and the World. We call these social action ministries our Welcome Works.
Through CAP we offer emergency debt counselling, giving people immediate access to help. We also offer a range of support services that target the underlying causes of debt and poverty.
Welcome Café
Welcome Café is a friendly community café hosted at Welcome Church every Monday between 10am and 2pm. Welcome Café connects all of our courses and services, and provides a friendly place for people to find community.
Great Food & Drinks
We serve delicious and affordable hot food from midday - sandwiches & toasties for just £1 or a delicious hot meal for £2. A tasty bargain! Brunch is served all day. Tea & Coffee is free, or you can treat yourself to a latte, cappuccino or flat white for just £1!
Great People
Come to meet people and have a chat, relax and read a newspaper, or join in with card games & board games. Parents you can bring your babies & toddlers to play in the Kids Corner while you enjoy your coffee.
We’re open every Monday except for Bank Holidays and during August. We’d love to see you there!
Debt Centre
We partner with CAP to offer a free and supportive service for anyone struggling with debt.
No matter how large or small your debt problem is, we can help. Our free, expert debt help will support you all the way to becoming debt free.
The first step is often the hardest, but it’s really worth it. Asking for help can be daunting, particularly for many people who have reached a crisis point before calling to book an appointment.
Let us get in touch with you
We offer a call back service to get you started. Simply text ‘Debt Help’ to 07999 354405, or email us at debthelp@welcomechurch.uk, and someone from our Debt Centre Team will call you to chat through how you can start the journey to become debt-free!
CAP are unsurpassed when it comes to the debt help they give people across the country”
- Martin Lewis OBE, Money Saving Expert
Money Coaching
In partnership with CAP we offer the Money Coaching Course, which is a free 3-week course designed to help you budget, spend and save.
Money coaching is a free service designed to empower you with the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to better manage your finances. Anyone can benefit – from seasoned budgeting experts to those struggling to get to grips with their spending.
Money coaching has been designed and developed by CAP. They’ve drawn on their 25+ years of experience helping tens of thousands of people take control of their finances to bring you a money management course that really works.
We run Money Coaching at Welcome Church, on both Mondays and Saturdays. See below for our upcoming courses and sign up to reserve your free place.
Job Club
In partnership with CAP we run Job Club on Monday afternoons at Welcome Church.
Job Club is a friendly place where you’ll get practical help and gain the tools you need to find work. It’s a welcoming group where you can meet like-minded people local to you, while gaining the skills and support you need to find a job you’ll love.
You’ll follow an eight-week course that will give you all the tools you need to find work, from writing a CV that employers won’t be able to resist, to brushing up on those all-important interview skills.
It’s completely free to join our Job Club, and we’ve got a track record of helping people find work.
My new job would never have happened if it wasn’t for the Job Club. I will always be grateful for their support when I didn’t know what to do next with my life and career.
- Anna, Welcome Church Job Club attendee
Life Skills
Partnering with CAP, we run 3 key Life Skills Workshops, each designed to teach you practical ways to deal with some of the huge challenges we’re all facing and to help you take control of your future.
The Cost of Living Crisis Workshop will help you handle the growing challenges of rising costs.
The Healthy Eating on a Budget Workshop will help you shop and cook healthy meals on a budget.
The Healthy You Workshop will give some simple and practical ways to manage the stresses and pressures of life well.
Our workshops run at Welcome Church on Mondays or Saturdays. To register for a session simply sign up below.
Fresh Start
Is there something in your life that you just can’t stop doing even though you want to? Maybe it’s smoking, binge drinking, gambling or an Internet addiction? Do you feel like it’s just too hard to tackle it on your own?
If you would like help to break free, then Fresh Start is for you. Whatever it is you are struggling with, our Fresh Start groups provide a safe and confidential place where you can tackle the issue right at the core, helping you to break free and stay free.
You’ll find a supportive community of people in a warm and welcoming environment. Fresh Start runs for eight weeks and will equip you to overcome whatever it is that’s been holding you back, so you can live a happier, more fulfilling life.
Sessions take place at Welcome Church every Monday, refreshments are provided during the session, and you can also enjoy a free lunch in Welcome Café, served between 12-2pm. To book your free place on the next course simply sign up below:
Get Online
Are you one of the many people who are confused by computers? Or do you know someone without online access?
Whether you need assistance to book an online appointment, send an email, print a document or simply just want some friendly support, we’re here to help.
Come along to Get Online on Mondays in Welcome Cafe for free support!
10:30am-12:30pm: drop-in support with the Get Online Team
1:00pm-2:00pm: book a relaxed one-to-one appointment
Kintsugi Hope
A safe and supportive space for people who are experiencing challenges to their mental and emotional health.
This free course provides tools for self-management in a facilitated peer-mentoring style, helping you to grow and flourish as you move forward.
Welcome Single Mums
Welcome Single Mums is a safe and encouraging community for all mums who are solo parenting.
We aim to create a friendly environment where single parents and their children can meet up to have some fun together, receive support and get encouragement from others at a similar stage of life.
When do you meet?
Once a month we meet together at Welcome Church directly after the 11am meeting to enjoy a free meal together, with kids very much welcome too. It’s a chance to build relationships and share experiences.
As well as support and encouragement, through Welcome Works single mums can also receive wider help such as financial advice, parenting skills, and practical support.
If you’d like to connect with Welcome Single Mums, get in touch with Hanneke at singlemums@welcomechurch.uk.
Prison Ministry
Working in partnership with national charity Prison Fellowship, we offer support in two local prisons, HMP Coldingley and HMP Send. Our prison team help to provide holistic support to men and women seeking to rebuild their lives.
We help to run a number of courses, including Prison Fellowship’s ‘Sycamore Tree Course’, helping offenders recognise the impact of their actions, as well as the ‘Living with Loss’, ‘Forgiveness’ and ‘Life Shapers’ courses.
We are also involved in one-to-one mentoring to support offenders as they prepare for release, bereavement support and supporting women who are separated from their children.
We are regularly involved in running Sunday services in prison and, as part of Prison Fellowship, we also facilitate the provision of presents to prisoners’ children at Christmas, via the Angel Tree project.
Social Enterprises
Welcome Church is full of talented people with vision and expertise, and we’ve had the privilege of being able to fund and support a number of social enterprises founded and sustained by people from our church family.
The Useful Wood Company
Collecting and recycling wood, creating beautiful and useful products, and offering skills & work confidence to people who cannot access the job market.
Go Rendang!
A meal solution provider specialising in home-cooked Malaysian cuisine and offering a variety of services. As well as catering for families and small private functions, Go Rendang has a social mission to meet the needs of those struggling with food insecurity.
Compassion
Through partnering with Compassion UK, we are able as a church to extend our mission beyond the borders of Woking and out into the world. In 2019 we began partnering with Compassion UK to strategically support churches working to fight poverty in Togo. As a church we sponsor over 280 children and families, and were able to give significantly to a Child Survival Project which was match-funded by the UK Government.
Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Programme is a ministry to children living in poverty and aims to disciple, equip and enable children to develop into fulfilled and responsible adults. The Child Sponsorship Programme is operated through Child Development Centres, which run in partnership with a local church in the child’s community.
Our support equips the children for the future by providing for their core needs: spiritually, economically, physically, socially and emotionally. The programme offers many educational opportunities, including literacy and life skills training, health care and health education, and, if required, supplemental nutrition.
The unique structure of one-to-one sponsorship of a child from an early age through their teenage years allows sponsors and sponsored children to have input into each other’s lives by writing letters to each other, and has proven to result in well educated, rounded young men and women who themselves are seeking to make a great difference in their communities.
Get involved
If you would like to join us in sponsorship children and families in Togo, simply click below to find out more.
Serving Our Town
Welcome Church is full of people who are passionate about serving our town, and many of them get involved in other local social action ministries and enterprises, which we’ve been proud to support and champion. These are often collaborative works with other churches and agencies, achieving more by working together.
Welcome Church people are currently involved in:
It’s a delight to cheer these people on as they give so generously of their time and energy to support the needs of those in our town.