Loneliness campaign (2015-2019)

In 2015 we asked our members to tell us the big issues facing their communities. Overwhelmingly, they voted for us to tackle loneliness with the support of the British Red Cross.

Co-op members and colleagues raised a huge £6.7 million to tackle loneliness in communities throughout the UK.

What we did with the money

With the money raised, we provided funding for new British Red Cross services (rolled out in May and June 2017) in almost 40 locations across the UK.

These services, developed from the findings from our research, helped thousands of people reconnect with their local communities by providing up to 12 weeks' support to:

• Build confidence.
• Address practical or psychological barriers.
• Help people find activities and groups in their local community.

Because we smashed our original fundraising target of £3.5m, we worked with the British Red Cross to look at ways to support even more people who were experiencing loneliness to re-connect with their communities.

"What I loved so much was that they didn't say to me you've been doing this wrong, you've been doing that wrong, never judged me, they just listened... People who are lonely just want someone to talk to for a few weeks to maybe signpost them in the direction of clubs they can join, things they can do... It is invaluable, it is absolutely invaluable." Dave, beneficiary

Our Campaigning

Between 2015 and 2019, we worked with British Red Cross to tackle loneliness and throughout this period we campaigned with our members to raise the profile of this previously misunderstood and under estimated issue.

• We were a founder member of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. As part of this, we launched a report calling on the government to recognise and respond to loneliness as a major issue in society.
• As a result, the then UK government announced the appointment of a minster with responsibility for loneliness and published a strategy to tackle loneliness across all ages, which was rooted in our reframing of this issue.
• We co-chaired the Loneliness Action Group with the British Red Cross, which helped the government shape and implement its new loneliness strategy. We also supported an All Party Parliamentary Group on loneliness to provide cross party parliamentarians with a forum to engage on the issue.
• Our activity was underpinned by valuable insight from our partnership’s research (see links below), which began with ‘Trapped in a Bubble’. This report showed that loneliness affects all ages, is likely to impact nine million people in the UK, and that ordinary life events such as becoming a mum and experiencing a bereavement or health issue can be triggers for loneliness.