Dear Friends,

Our Trustees wish to inform you of some significant changes taking place at Bridge Builders.
Please see their message below.

Grace and peace

The Bridge Builders Team

A Message from the Trustees of Bridge Builders

Bridge Builders is well-respected throughout the UK as the primary provider of both high-quality training in conflict transformation and mediation services for churches and other Christian organisations.

Bridge Builders is an established charity in the UK, growing from its Mennonite roots to work with Christian leaders from a wide range of denominations. We’ve been in operation for nearly 25 years, and, during that time, through residential training and workshops, we have trained well over 5000 people, equipping them to lead well through times of tension and conflict.

Bridge Builders’ vision is to see people resourced to live the transforming gospel of reconciliation in every aspect of their lives. To enable us to reach as wide a range of people as possible, we have always sought to keep our costs to a minimum. Even so the charges do not cover all the costs of the work of the charity.

Over the last few months Bridge Builders’ trustees and staff have been looking at the long-term sustainability of the charity. This has been done as part of our strategic review looking at the overall vision of the charity and how we can sustain delivery of this vision in the long term.

As a result, the trustees have taken the difficult decision to restructure the organisation with the goal of reducing the short-term cost base while setting the organisation up for long term growth.

The changes being implemented are:

  • actively exploring other/wider dependable funding streams,
  • continuing to develop partnerships,
  • making changes to our staffing structure,
  • exploring the way our core work is supported by administration, marketing and fundraising.

From November, we will be reducing our staff to one full-time role supported by a part-time administrator:

  • The Administration role, currently full-time, will be reduced in scope and become a part-time role,
  • Liz Griffiths, currently our Director of Training, will continue to oversee the development and delivery of training as well as picking up the day to day management responsibility of Bridge Builders,
  • Colin Moulds, Bridge Builders’ Executive Director since 2015, will be standing down from his full-time role.
    Bridge Builders will continue to benefit from Colin’s skills and experience as, building on the investment of the Laing Foundation, he will continue to work on the development and delivery of our mediation service as one of our mediation and training partners.

We want to acknowledge all that Colin has done in shaping Bridge Builders for the future, and for his passion and hard work in conflict transformation and reconciliation.

We recognise the need for Bridge Builders to respond to the changing shape and needs of church ministry and to continue to provide high quality and flexible training resources to equip people to connect with and support their local communities.

We believe that these changes will provide the right basis for the long-term development and growth of a well-known and respected organisation and allow Bridge Builders to fulfil its vision of equipping Christians to live out the gospel call to reconciliation in a broken world.