Relaunching the Loneliness Hub
- debbiethrower0
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Julia Burton-Jones and Jane Butcher attended a webinar on Tuesday, March 24, that focused on the re-launch of the Loneliness Hub (Home - Tacking Loneliness).
We are approaching the 10-year-anniversary of the death of Jo Cox MP, in whose name the first national Loneliness Strategy was launched in 2018 as part of the campaign to address loneliness across all ages (A connected society: a strategy for tackling loneliness - GOV.UK).
The Loneliness Hub forms a key resource in the strategy and government Minister for Social Connection and Loneliness, Stephanie Peacock MP, spoke at the launch.
Churches play a key role in neighbourhood responses to loneliness. Prime Minister Teresa May says in her foreword to the strategy:
‘On Christmas Day, in my constituency of Maidenhead, the Churches Together project holds a community lunch so that no-one need be on their own at such a special time of year. It is a wonderful initiative that I have been proud to support for many years. But it is also a stark reminder of the loneliness that is a reality for too many people in our society today.’
The relaunch included reflections on progress since the strategy’s launch from Grainne O’Dwyer from Neighbourly Lab (Home - Neighbourly Lab), and Professor Andrea Wigfield, director of Campaign to End Loneliness (Home | Campaign to End Loneliness) and the Centre for Loneliness Studies (Centre for Loneliness Studies | Sheffield Hallam University) at Sheffield Hallam University.
Grianne said the hub had led to research being shared with those on the frontline of responding to loneliness. Andrea remarked that there is more awareness of loneliness not just being a later life issue, with a range of trigger points for becoming lonely at a younger age identified, such as motherhood. She spoke of the benefits of intergenerational responses to loneliness, such as Grandma’s Soup, where students and older people make and eat soup together on a regular basis.
A panel discussion included Collette Bunker and Rayella Broomhead from b:friend (Home - b:friend | Let's end loneliness together, let's b:friend) which has grown rapidly to cover South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and has 750 pairings between volunteers and those they befriend, plus 17 social hubs running diverse sessions for people of all ages (such as Making Mocktails, Zumba, Creative Writing and Armchair tra
Also on the panel was Andy Dean from Community Action Northumberland (Community Action Northumberland) who spoke about projects with rural communities to ‘future proof’ village halls as central places for fostering community and belonging.
It was heart-warming to hear stories from across the country where creative projects have enabled loneliness to be tackled head on. The magnitude of need is huge, the panel reflected, but the stigma around loneliness is reducing so people feel more able to admit, ‘I am lonely’.
Those leading projects expressed admiration for the good people who are volunteering to help others find friendship and connection. The experience of these volunteers is that it is not a chore but something that brings great reward, friendship and a new sense of purpose in life.
In Anna Chaplaincy, loneliness is a key theme. Many Anna Chaplains link with social prescribers in their area, through whom they receive referrals of individuals who are isolated. Some Anna Chaplains are embedded in befriending projects (such as Befriended and Time to Talk Befriending in Sussex).
Anna Chaplaincy is also a member organisation of Christians Together Against Loneliness (Christians Together Against Loneliness - Home) which is seeking to raise awareness in churches and provide a collective church voice into government initiatives.
The new Loneliness Hub is an excellent website for churches with its many resources on loneliness, case studies to explore and helpful free online events. A new Youth Hub was launched on March 24 in response to the stark statistic that one third of young people (10-19) feel alone or lonely some of the time.
Jane and Julia were pleased to join the relaunch and hope the Loneliness Hub in its new form will enable many churches and individuals to develop their practice and extend their reach in connecting with lonely people of all ages.