By Will Fletcher, Interim CEO
2025 has been another important year for all of us here at The Jo Cox Foundation and we’re immensely grateful to all of our supporters who’ve helped make it possible. We’ve shared a few of the highlights for each of our programmes below.
It has been an immense honour to lead the Foundation as Interim CEO since September 2024, and I look forward to continuing as part of the team and working with Olivia Field, our newly appointed CEO, when she starts in the New Year.
The Great Get Together
In June 2025 we marked nine years of the Great Get Together. Once again, it was an impactful campaign with people running events throughout the UK to show that we have “more in common than that which divides us”. As a result, 88% of attendees said that they felt a greater connection to others in their community.
2026 will be an even bigger year for the Great Get Together as we will celebrate our 10th campaign just after the 10th anniversary of Jo’s murder. Planning for this is already well underway, and we’re really pleased to have raised over £17,000 through a crowd funding campaign to support next year’s Great Get Together, which will take place from 19-21 June 2026.
Respectful Politics
Much of our Respectful Politics work this year has focussed on continuing to make progress towards getting all of our Civility Commission recommendations adopted, with 23 of our original recommendations now either fully or partially adopted.
This year, with support from the JRSST Charitable Trust we’ve also consulted with partners and stakeholders on our forthcoming second call to action for the devolved nations. We look forward to publishing this new report in early 2026.
The More in Common Network
The More in Common Network has continued to grow, and we’ve been delighted to welcome new members to the Network. We now have 17 groups and 4 partnerships, all carrying out their own work in their communities to bring life to Jo’s more in common message.
In May, we held our first in-person More In Common in Action event. This one-day event held in Manchester brought together 45 attendees from across the UK who all work to strengthen their communities. It was an exciting day where different members of the network had the opportunity to learn from one another. We’re looking forward to hosting our second event in 2026.
Tackling Loneliness
Thanks to funding from the Astra Foundation, we embarked on a new loneliness project, through which we have been establishing a Loneliness Policy Group for voluntary sector organisations, so that we can make the best case to government for going further to address loneliness.
This year has focussed on a lot of the groundwork, building partnerships and relationships with other organisations and working with the new secretariat for the APPG on Tackling Loneliness and Connected Communities. We’re excited to continue developing this work going forward.
Bridging and Belonging
Our Bridging and Belonging project in Batley, Dewsbury and Heckmondwike has gathered significant momentum this year. Over the past 12 months we’ve worked with a Community Steering Group to engage over 500 members of the community through 21 listening events. As a result of this, we’ve co-produced a shared vision for the future of these three towns, which we look forward to sharing in early 2026.
With support from One Community Kirklees and the Sir George Martin Trust, we are now developing the next stage of this work, which will focus on community-led social action initiatives that can begin to bring this vision to reality.
Senior Leadership
It’s been a year of significant appointments for our leadership here at the Foundation. We welcomed Baroness Jan Royall as our new Chair in September 2025, and we recently appointed Olivia Field as our new CEO, who will join the Foundation officially in January 2026.