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Connection Coalition

Connection Conversation with InCommon

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Sarena Shetty is Programme and Partnerships Lead at InCommon, and was a recent member of a Community of Practice run by the Connection Coalition.

InCommon is a charity that brings generations together, connecting groups of young people with their older neighbours in retirement homes. They partner with schools, youth groups and housing associations to run intergenerational workshops that bring people of different ages together in meaningful ways so that they can learn from each other and build friendships.

Sarena tells us about InCommon, what really works to connect across generations, how she’d love to connect with other network members, and InCommon’s imminent first ever fundraising campaign – the Big Give Christmas Challenge.

What do you love most about your work and what are you most proud of?

I love going to our intergenerational sessions – the pure magic that’s created when you bring a group of young people together with their older neighbours… honestly, it gives me endless joy. We normally do a check-in with our participants at the start. I like to ask what colour people are feeling. One child came up to me after a session and told me that he was feeling golden after having so much fun spending time with the older residents – that’s exactly how I feel each time too! I’m really lucky in my role as Programme and Partnerships Lead because I get exposed to both the strategic, big picture stuff, but am also embedded in our direct delivery work and get to see our impact on the ground. 

I really believe our work is core in creating more connected communities. We intentionally place our work locally so that schools and youth groups are no more than a 15-minute walk from a sheltered scheme or retirement community. Older participants often tell us that they see children outside of workshops – they’re always surprised when the children remember their names and say hello! I like to think of it as a catalyst. We create a welcoming space for older and younger generations to connect which then sparks further connections within the community. 

Through our work, we build purposeful relationships that build confidence and skills, as well as dispelling old narratives that older and younger generations have nothing in common. This is key to building more inclusive connected age-friendly communities and I’m grateful to be part of a project working towards that. 

What am I most proud of in all of this? To date, we’ve made over 2,350 connections between different generations and last year 91% of older people told us that attending a workshop made them feel happier – these are things I’m very proud of! 

What do you see as the biggest challenge in your work?

I think it’s hard for me to talk about the biggest challenges in my work, because lots of them will be challenges faced by the whole sector, such as access to funding. 

When it comes to our participants, I think Covid still has a huge impact, particularly with the older residents that we work with. We run our sessions in the communal areas of retirement homes. These areas were closed off during the pandemic and people were told to isolate and stay in their homes. We’re now asking these same people to not only spend time in a space that was said to be unsafe, but also to spend time with children who they were specifically told to avoid! Overcoming these barriers, alongside rebuilding people’s social and emotional confidence can be hard, particularly when Covid isn’t really spoken about in the mainstream any more. 

Thinking about the work of your organisation, what do you think works particularly well?

We place a huge emphasis on building reciprocal relationships and giving purpose to the older volunteers on our programme. We value everyone’s experience and contribution and our older volunteers take their roles seriously. We’ve recently launched an Intergenerational Panel to listen to the needs, wants and ideas of everyone who experiences our programmes. We had older volunteers travel in taxis across London to have their voices heard – it was wonderful to see. Giving purpose to people who are often written off in society is something that we do really well and our volunteers have offered over 3,000 hours of their time through our programmes. 

We’ve also made huge efforts to develop an anti-prejudice agenda. For us, anti-prejudice means going beyond a formal EDI policy and actively challenging prejudice across all workstreams. I’m particularly proud of our anti-prejudice facilitation guidance (we’d be happy to share this if anyone is interested). We’ve recently appointed an Anti-Prejudice Lead who is brilliant and holds us all accountable. We’re always looking to learn more so please reach out to us if you’d like to start a conversation. 

Is there anything specific you would like to offer other members of the network?

Based on our own learnings, we’d love to support others in running intergenerational projects across the UK. We’ve recently launched a digital platform to support grassroots projects across the country to grow and thrive. If you’d like to know more, then please reach out to me. We also have a bank of free resources on the InCommon website.

Is there anything specific you would like other members to help you with?

Yes! We’re really excited to announce that InCommon is taking part in its first-ever fundraising campaign in a few weeks – the Big Give Christmas Challenge.

From 28 November-5 December, we’re aiming to raise £8,000 which will help us connect a retirement home and a school for a year of intergenerational friendship. This is an ambitious target but a great opportunity as all donations in that period will be doubled – that means one donation, twice the impact. 

We would be very grateful for any support – whether that’s donating to the campaign or sharing it more widely.

If other members would like to connect with you, how can they best contact you?

You can find me on LinkedIn here, or email me. Please reach out, I’d love to connect! 

Connection Conversation with Befriending Networks

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Sandra Marsden is the Membership Services Officer at Befriending Networks, the national intermediary for befriending services. Sandra recently co-facilitated a Connection Coalition informal get together with The Jo Cox Foundation.

Befriending Networks supports nearly 400 members with training, information, guidance, and opportunities for connection and collaboration. They have been running an annual Befriending Week campaign for 11 years. This year, Befriending Week will take place from 1-7 November, online and in communities.

Befriending

Befriending offers supportive, reliable relationships through volunteers to people who would otherwise be socially isolated. Around the UK, befriending projects organise effective support for groups such as children and young people, families, people with mental ill-health, people with learning disabilities and older people. Several different befriending projects are also members of the Connection Coalition, in fact!

Benefits

Befriending often provides people with a new direction in life, opens up a range of activities, leads to increased self-esteem and self-confidence, and can reduce social isolation and loneliness by improving wellbeing. Befriending can also reduce the burden on other services which people may use inappropriately as they seek social contact. We’re a relatively small team at Befriending Networks, but we make a big noise about the positive impact of befriending!

What’s Befriending Week?

Befriending Week really is a highlight of the year for the membership of Befriending Networks – a moment for us all to pause, reflect, and celebrate the wonderful achievements, the team efforts, and the difference befriending makes every day. 

More than a celebration

Whilst celebration will always be at the heart of Befriending Week, it’s also an opportunity to strengthen the befriending sector. This feels particularly acute in 2023 given the pressures on funding, cost of living, increased demand for services, and the continuous need for volunteers. We believe using our collective voice over the course of Befriending Week can raise the profile and bring positive attention to our sector. 

Scale

We published our annual Befriending Statistics Report which profiles the scale of befriending in the UK. On average, a befriending volunteer provides 51 hours of befriending support per year. More than 1 million befriending hours were contributed by volunteers. More than 55,000 people are benefiting from befriending support. The economic value of befriending is estimated to be at least £16.3 million.

Conference

Befriending Week will launch with our annual membership conference on 1 November, which focuses on the theme that “Befriending is Support.” This is an ideal time for our members to connect with one another and to inform our Voice of Befriending report, which is due to be published soon.

Resources

Our website, www.befriending.co.uk is the go-to place for supporters of Befriending Week where you can find resources and materials to celebrate and promote befriending week.  Each day we will be asking a question of our online followers about befriending. Over the week we will be sharing 21 outstanding befriending case-studies on our social media channels and website.  

Connection

What we’re most looking forward to is the connection, celebration, and community that we share with our members during Befriending Week. We know that right across the country they will be hosting events, thanking their volunteers, and shouting loud about the benefits and power of befriending. 

What others can do

Grab our Supporters Board, snap a photo and tag us in. You can follow along and engage all week long using #BefriendingWeek. Find us on Facebook and LinkedIn @BefriendingNetworks or on X/Twitter @BefriendingNet.

Connection Conversation with If Everyone Cares CIC

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Jaki King is the CEO and founder of If Everyone Cares CIC – the creators of aDoddle, a free interactive UK-wide community map that aims to make it easy for everyone to find and give help. 

The problem

I set up If Everyone Cares CIC in 2015 because I felt we lacked one central place where people can find help. We’re a very caring society – with over 200,000 charities and community projects supporting our most vulnerable – yet these organisations can feel like our ‘Hidden Emergency Service’. Information about help and support across the UK is stored in multiple places, in all sorts of formats and it’s often hard to navigate because it’s based on local authority areas or specific areas of work (e.g. homelessness or suicide prevention). Information seems to rarely connect to other sources and is often out of date, so it can feel irrelevant and inaccurate.  Sadly, it often feels easier to find a hotel room or a restaurant using Google Maps than it is to find information about help and support.

The idea

When people find themselves in very dark moments, it can help them to know that help is nearby. They might not even reach out for support – they might never do that – but we understand that it can help them to know that help exists. So, I started developing an online map where all charities and projects offering any sort of help can be easily found. People can use the map to get help quickly and without experiencing stigma. And this map is also a place where charities can find out information about each other and connect, and decision-makers can easily understand this landscape of organisations supporting people.  

aDoddle

I decided this map should be called aDoddle (funnily enough, Noel Edmunds coined the name in a conversation with me – but that’s another story!) because it’s so easy to use.  Huge numbers of charities and community organisations (3000+) have now created their profiles on there for free. One-off events are now able to be added to the maps as well. Every profile has at least one contact detail, and organisations can choose to have a get-in-touch button. When this is clicked, it opens up a simple form on the website. The map can be embedded into other organisation’s websites – we grant permission, which means we know where it’s being used, but other organisations can choose whether to just show what they upload or show the whole map. We also make bespoke maps, for instance for Food Aid, and we’re now working on growing a network of connected area-based community maps – we have 98 so far.

Traffic lights

We’ve designed a unique ‘Traffic Light’ system which clearly shows when a profile was last updated – I hope this assists people seeking help or those wanting to connect with others, or even volunteer, to know the information they’re looking at is current and up-to-date.

Neurodiversity

Although I’m happy to discuss my neurodiversity, I tend not to share it too openly. I feel it might dominate how some people see me, particularly in the tech world, whereas I want people to see me for who I am, for what I have achieved so far and for what I’m capable of. That said, if anyone in the network feels it might help them to discuss it with me then please reach out to me.

Next

I have so many ideas! I’d like to find a young person to take on some of the work I do – I’d like to be a kind of mentor to them. In the long run, I’d also like to connect with different partners who could take ‘control’ of an area map and develop the home page to match the needs of their community. It would also be good to start some fireside chats using Airmeets’ Social Lounge platform. Like informal get togethers, I feel the more people that come to these sorts of environments and open up to each other, the better our society will be. 

Contact me

I’d love to hear from other members – if you’d like to know more about the map, want to share something with me, or just want to connect, you can reach me at [email protected].

Connection Conversation with Community Together CIC

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Community Together CIC provides a gateway for people in Tamworth and the surrounding area to find support and guidance when they need it. Their goal is to help local people Grow Well, Live Well and Age Well through a variety of projects and activities.

Lee Bates, Project Coordinator at Community Together CIC, discusses their work – including a Citizen’s Enquiry they ran last year and their work with local migrant communities.

Wellbeing

Community Together CIC began in 2011 and has always taken a very holistic approach to the local community’s well-being, trying to respond to whatever we see the local community needs. We’ve grown in recent years and, largely through successful collaborations, we’ve been able to offer services beyond Tamworth into other parts of Southern Staffordshire.

Funding

It often feels like we just get on with whatever’s needed and worry about the finances later! But seriously, about half of our work is contracted (mainly through the NHS) and the remainder is supported through fundraising. We’re signed up to Grants Online and we find there’s a fair bit of funding out there, but a lot of it is very specific and so not right for us.

Bridging divides

Our services include link workers, meals on wheels, befriending, form filling and hospital discharge. We also provide migrant support. We have asylum seekers staying in a Tamworth hotel, and unfortunately many local people were complaining on social media. We wanted to help them, and also recognised there were many skilled people in that hotel barred from working. So we’ve been running community projects that enable them to use their skills on a voluntary basis. For example, chefs helped us put on a food event for the community. We deliberately referred to them as volunteers rather than asylum seekers, but we also gave them a space to share their stories to help local people understand their situation. We no longer see any complaints on social media about the guests in the hotel in our town!

Citizen’s Inquiry

A Citizen’s Inquiry is a deliberative process which involves local communities discussing and making proposals around local issues. They often produce more insightful results than consultations or focus groups, and can result in groups of local people feeling motivated to take action. 

Last year, our local Integrated Care Board or ICB (then known as a CCG) wanted to understand what helps people stay well in the Tamworth area, so they commissioned a Citizen’s Inquiry. At first there was hesitancy from the Local Authority that it might become a forum for complaining, but we were given lots of autonomy and so able to focus on the positives of staying well and connected. 

We initially went door-to-door, avoiding engaging ‘the usual suspects’ and ensuring we heard a diverse community voice. These conversations led us to recruit three panels (with incentives for taking part) each focussing on a different aspect of community wellbeing. 

We developed questions based on what came up in the public conversations, which the panels used as a basis for their discussions. As the process went on, there was a realization from the participants that they, as individuals, could make things happen. For example, if enough local people felt some space for growing vegetables would help increase community wellbeing, they could try contacting the local school and asking if they’d consider freeing up some space for shared allotments. Or they could arrange for neglected underpasses to be painted. Or for litter to be picked. They realised these actions aren’t about ‘doing the council’s job for them’, but are about community pride and agency.

The participants identified priorities for different geographic areas, and action plans were drawn up (here). On the back of the Inquiry, we’ve been commissioned by the Local Authority to provide small pots of funds for local groups to apply for in order to act upon the plans.

I’d say to fellow Connection Coalition members, consider contacting your local ICB and ask if they’ve conducted a Citizen’s Inquiry into your local community’s wellbeing. If not, maybe you could help them do it!

Connect

I’d love to hear from other members – whether you’d like to chat about our work, have suggestions or ideas for collaboration, or just want to reach out and connect. Contact me here.

Connection Conversation with Moorlands Community Charity

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Jacky Crawford, CEO of Moorlands Community Charity, talks about trying to work around the challenges they’re facing whilst sustaining their vital support for the local community.

Moorlands Community Charity is a small organisation of 19 staff and 17 volunteers. They run services and activities such as Meals on Wheels, a Community Café, a Youth Club and Cyber Café, Migrant Support Services and a Luncheon Club for the residents of Old Goole, Goole and surrounding villages.

Financial struggles

It’s a difficult time for us. We considered closing the charity in December, but we’re managing to temporarily keep everything going until the end of March thanks to an emergency grant from East Riding of Yorkshire Council. We’ve tried to raise more income, running marketing campaigns with leafleting and articles in the local press, but we’ve had to make the difficult decision to transfer our Meals on Wheels service at the end of the month. It started in 2008, providing vulnerable people with a hot meal, an important friendly connection and a welfare check (we make many referrals to adult social care this way). But the service is too expensive for us to run now with the massive increase in wholesale food, electricity and petrol costs.

Solutions

Although it’s upsetting that we can’t continue Meals on Wheels, we’re handing the service over to a Hull-based CIC (Nancy’s Larder) so vulnerable local people continue to be looked after. They’re better placed to cover the costs of supporting rural areas since they can generate more income providing services to larger numbers of people in Hull. As part of the transfer, I’m mentoring their CEO – passing on what I’ve learned and ensuring they’ve got everything in place, such as safeguarding policies.

Wellbeing

I’m about to attend a weekend retreat for CEOs of local charities run by Two Ridings Community Foundation Trust’s HEY Confident Futures leadership programme. It feels more important than ever for us all to look after our own wellbeing.

Future

In some ways, it feels like a new beginning for us now. We’re mapping out our next 3 years, including whether we might run a domiciliary care service. Our Luncheon Club – which like many of our activities is service-user led – is at capacity, so maybe now we can open it up to more people by providing another Club in Old Goole. We are also looking to set up an intergenerational craft group with the help of a local established craft group called Dabblers.  Many services for older people are online now, so perhaps some of the Dabblers can exchange their craft skills for some younger people’s technological knowledge.

Connect

I’d welcome others reaching out to me for a chat about anything, but particularly if we might share ideas and experiences on how to stave off the constant threat of closure. You can contact me at [email protected].

Connection Conversation with Ready Generations

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Ready Generations is a charity set up in 2019 to support connection and sustained relationships between people of all ages. With expertise in early years education and care, we work with settings across the country to build intergenerational communities. Linked with a number of universities, we are a research charity and everything we try to do is evidence-based.

Sue Egersdorff discusses their work, challenges, what works well for them and what the future might hold.

What’s your role at Ready Generations?

I am a co-founder of the charity alongside my fabulous colleague, Liz Ludden. We are both trustees and I am currently Chair of Trustees. As passionate early years professionals, we observed how naturally very young children and older people enjoyed each other’s company with both benefitting in so many ways. Our observations only increased our curiosity. That’s how our journey started and every day we are learning more and gathering evidence to show the potential of intergenerational relationships

What do you love most about your work?

I absolutely love developing and growing Ready Generations from an early seed of an idea. In July 2022, we opened the first fully integrated intergenerational nursery in the heart of a care village in Chester. This has been a massive project but I am so proud of how it has changed many people’s lives for the better in so short a time.

I find it hard to separate personal and professional achievements as for me, they are the same and represent what I stand for and believe in.

What’s your biggest challenge?

As a small but very busy charity, I know straight away what my biggest challenge is! It’s finding time for fundraising and grant applications. I find grant applications the most difficult as we never seem to quite fit the criteria. We are either too small, don’t have enough money in the bank, haven’t been established long enough etc.

However, with practice, I am getting better and won’t let this defeat me! 

What do you do that works particularly well?

Ready Generations has developed a particular bespoke relational model called the Attuned Relationships Model. We use this in all our work to ensure consistency, equity and impact. The model is based on the theories of attachment and attunement and recognises the centrality of psychological safety. 

What can you offer other members?

There is always an open invitation to come and see our Intergenerational Nursery in action. We can promise a warm welcome and always chocolate biscuits!

How can other members help you?

I strongly believe we all achieve more when we join up our ideas and take time to have, what I call, reflective pauses. Steady improvement needs us to slow down enough to think deeply and listen to feedback from others. Any opportunities to have deep conversations always help me to focus and stay focussed on the things that really matter. So – more opportunities to spend time with members of the Connection Coalition would be fabulous!

How does your organisation’s future look?

I am really excited about the future of Ready Generations and its growing capacity to make lives better for people, especially the most marginalised. I believe strongly that the way we care for and listen to particular groups reflects our values and how we see the world around us. We believe we all have a story that needs to be heard.

How can other members best connect with you?

Email – [email protected]

Twitter – @readygen

Website – www.readygenerations.co.uk

Website – www.nurseryinbelong.org.uk

Connection Conversation with All the Small Things

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

All the Small Things CIC is a small social enterprise – they’re a Social Action Hub in North Staffordshire and are members of the Academy for Community Organising.  They have seven Directors and a team of Associates, all self-employed or volunteers.

They provide training, mentoring and support for social action. They also lead projects, networks and partnerships with a focus on community practice that addresses local people’s priorities. The main themes of their work currently are tackling poverty, cohesion and loneliness through connection and inclusive volunteering and social action. Many of the people they work with are in Stoke-on-Trent, but they work with people from the wider area as well. As a snapshot of the kind of social action work they support people to take, a community member came to them very concerned that a local council were considering fining people if found sleeping rough with a tent – they encouraged them to organise a petition which was their first experience of social action. This helped convince the council to reject the idea.

Penny Vincent discusses what she’s most proud of, what their challenges are, what they can offer the network and what the network could do for them…

What’s your role at All the Small Things?

I’m Penny, one of the founding Directors, the lead trainer and partnership-worker. 

10 years ago I was part of a team that started the 1000 Lives Community Network, funded by the NHS as a social action for health project, to connect volunteers and active citizens in Stoke on Trent for mutual support and resource sharing. At around the same time I hosted a group of trainee Community Organisers working in Stoke on Trent. We set up All the Small Things in 2015 to be the independent accountable body for the 1000 Lives Community Network, and also to be the home for Community Organisers in the area. 

What do you love most about your work?

I love hearing people’s wisdom and experiences, and connecting people who have similar interests and concerns to share their stories and resources to get started, maintain or develop their community activities. I also get a thrill from facilitating community learning and training, seeing people gain skills, confidence, knowledge and motivation to take collective action to tackle inequalities. 

I’m proud of a few things! The difference that people we have trained, mentored and connected over the years continue to make in our communities, through charities, community groups, campaigns, and in the public and private sector too. 

I’m proud to have personally survived the Covid-19 pandemic so far. I’ve become a carer, shifted all my work online, and continued to work from home or outdoors to shield my partner due to his long-term health condition. I’ve also started working part-time at the Jo Cox Foundation to support and develop the More In Common Network around the UK. 

And I’m proud that Al the Small Things has survived and responded to the pandemic and the cost of living emergency by finding new ways to connect people, provide training and facilitate projects. We’ve spent 2022 undertaking a full Organisational Review and now have a strong focus and great action plan for our development.

What’s your biggest challenge?

We’re still very challenged by the impact of the pandemic. In 2020, moving support online enabled a lot of people to take part more easily – including disabled people who are often excluded.  However, people who are digitally excluded were less able to participate. Since we were able to have physical gatherings, our online participation has more or less dried up. This means that I, and other carers and disabled people who are vulnerable to Covid-19, are excluded. 

We need to reconnect with people we’ve had relationships with and continue to reach new people, to listen to understand what their concerns are now, and their support needs in relation to collective social action.

Hybrid meetings are too resource-intensive and expensive for us. We’re trying to find ways to organise socially distanced meetings outdoors, which worked well until winter.

People volunteering or taking social action, or who want to, are experiencing barriers because of limited finances and facilities. People’s priorities are not necessarily about attending training or networking events or peer support sessions.

What can you offer other members?

Our working process is all about sharing. The 1000 Lives Network created a simple system of resource exchange we call Got It Want It which other members may find helpful. We also provide training in community organising and social action, and facilitate peer support sessions for other community helpers. I’d be really happy to share our models for these with people in the Coalition.

How can other members help you?

To hear from you, to share your experiences of adapting throughout the pandemic and to build our network for solidarity to sustain us and enable us to collectively address the challenges for our communities. I’d particularly love to hear from anyone else facilitating social action by people in their communities.

How does your organisation’s future look?

We’re in a period of transition and have two current commissions from partners. Under One Roof is a community heritage project based in and around a local Church and we are their project managers. We facilitate quarterly Community Share Network events online for the Totally Stoked project in North Staffordshire. Through partnership working and grant applications we’re seeking to develop our work as a Social Action Hub, from our base at the Church, to progress collective action around poverty, cohesion, loneliness and inclusion and maintain the 1000 Lives Community Network.

How can other members best connect with you?

[email protected]

Connection Conversation with SCCCC

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This is part of a series of conversations with member organisations of the Connection Coalition.

Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care or SCCCC (pronounced S&4Cs) was formed in 1966. Originally set up by church members to combat loneliness and isolation amongst their more vulnerable communities, the charity has evolved into a trusted and integral part of the social care system.

Their mission is to provide older people with a helping hand when they need it most through free services, which include the Good Neighbour friendly visiting scheme (a befriending service) and the Hospital to Home scheme, which works closely with local hospitals and Health professionals. Their award-winning charity has seen huge growth over the past 4 years and currently has 25 full and part-time members of staff and over 180 friendly visiting volunteers helping to combat loneliness in Sheffield. Each year they support over 5,000 older, vulnerable and isolated people in Sheffield and have recently branched out to Doncaster.

Helen Coates and Loma Jones describe their work, what they’re proud of, their challenges and what the future might look like for SCCCC.

What’s your role at SCCCC?

I’m (Helen) Engagement Officer, Loma Jones is our EDI lead. I’ve been in post for 18 months and Loma for 3 months.

What do you love most about your work?

For me, it’s all about connection – making connections with partner organisations and figuring out how we can work together, and through that, enabling our volunteers and older people to connect with each other.

I’m most proud of being part of the team who produced our webinar –  ‘Reducing Loneliness in Sheffield’s B.A.M.E. Older People’ (on our SCCCC youtube channel). It was the first time something like this had been done in Sheffield, and we had really positive feedback about how valuable it had been. 

Tell us more about your partnership working!

I think the first thing to say is that – it takes time to build your network, and it takes time to build the trust and meaningful relationships that are needed for a partnership. Sometimes it can feel like you’re getting nowhere, but you never know when the links you’re making will come in handy – a link I made 4 years ago, as a volunteer, while trying to get an intergenerational project off the ground (which never came to pass because of Covid lockdowns), turned out to be invaluable last year in my current role, in building a network of organisations looking to better support older people from the LGBT+ communities.

I’m not always a huge fan of meeting on zoom, but it can be invaluable now for building partnerships – ask the people you want to link with for a 30 minute zoom conversation. It’s long enough to have an initial conversation about what you’re both doing, and where there might be an opportunity to share resources. 

What’s your biggest challenge?

For our team, staying in touch with a waiting list of lonely older people while waiting for more volunteers is a big challenge. We’re working hard on volunteer recruitment, as well as looking at different approaches to befriending, so we can keep growing and supporting more older people.

It’s an ongoing challenge to reach out to new people, organisations and communities who haven’t heard of us before, while also keeping us in the minds of those who know about us. So anyone reading this, please tell someone about us who may not have heard of us, give us a follow/like/share on social media or check out our website and look for our latest newsletter.

What can you offer other members?

Hopefully, our webinars would be useful for other members, who are seeking to engage with a more diverse client group. Always interested to be part of that discussion with other organisations.

How can other members help you?

Always keen to hear from others working in Engagement and in EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusions)! This is my first (paid) engagement role, and Loma has done EDI work previously, but not in the charity sector. Connecting with others and sharing ideas is always useful!

How does your organisation’s future look?

We’re working hard to maintain and increase our resources – be it income and fundraising or volunteer support in order to be able to reach out and support even more older isolated people.

I hope we’ll continue to diversify our staff and volunteer teams, so we can communicate with more people in their preferred language, and keep growing in our understanding of diverse backgrounds and cultures. 

Sheffield’s Race Equality Commission report (Race Equality Commission | Sheffield City Council) was published in Summer 2022, a huge step for the city in how we tackle racism and race inequality across all areas (e.g. health, business, crime, communities). SCCCC is embedding the recommendations into our work with older people, and I’m excited to be a part of that. 

How can other members best connect with you?

[email protected], or on LinkedIn

Report: On the brink of closure: can small charities survive the cost of living crisis?

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Small charities doing vital work to support local communities are facing untenable challenges because of the cost of living crisis. Because of increasing costs, workforce challenges and significant rises in demand from beneficiaries, almost half of those we surveyed are fighting for survival. Urgent government intervention is required to ensure they can keep supporting their communities. 

The Connection Coalition was formed by The Jo Cox Foundation in April 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, anticipating that the nation was at risk of a crisis of disconnection and a worsening epidemic of loneliness and isolation. Over 800 organisations have joined the Coalition and we support them as they work to build and maintain relationships and connections in their communities. 

As the pandemic rolls into a third winter and the impacts of the cost of living crisis start to be felt, the ongoing crisis of disconnection is only set to worsen. Across the UK, communities are supported by over 166,000 voluntary organisations, the majority of them small, with a turnover of less than £1 million. Many of these organisations stepped up in the face of the pandemic, providing vital services at the most difficult of times. It is essential to listen to, value and give practical support to these organisations who are keeping our communities safe and connected.

We conducted an online survey of Connection Coalition members for two weeks in September – October 2022. 23 members responded, giving us a snapshot of the experiences and concerns of small charities right now.

Su Moore, CEO of The Jo Cox Foundation, said:

“This report makes sobering but important reading. Members of the Connection Coalition are doing vital work on the ground to support their communities. With so many of these charities at risk it is clear that, without urgent government intervention, we will be facing a crisis of increased loneliness and disconnection as well as a cost of living crisis.”

Read the reportDownload

Report: Unlocking Connection: 7 Keys for Connection

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Since 2021, Meta has partnered with the Connection Coalition to provide small grants to members who want to test ideas and ways to build connections and community through the pandemic and beyond.

In the second round of grants in 2022, we gave a total of £10,000 to 10 Connection Coalition members. After four months of workshops and check-ins with the grantees, the Connection Coalition and Talking Taboos have compiled our learnings from this programme and summarised them in this report.

‘Anyone can benefit from increasing the number or quality of their social connections. However, we know that certain groups and individuals are more at risk of loneliness and disconnection, and many people face additional barriers when it comes to creating social connections. Doing what you can to identify and minimise barriers for those who would benefit most from your activities can help increase your positive impact and change people’s lives.’

This report aims to:

– Share the main learnings that emerged on creating connections and where to find further resources and inspiration.
– Paint a bigger picture of the work organisations are doing, particularly the challenges faced and the opportunities available.
– Highlight the work of the participating Connection Coalition members.

                                                                                Photo credit: Ready Generations

Through our test-and-learn approach, we have identified 7 keys for connection, which when considered and applied, have shown themselves to unlock connections between people. These keys are grounded in community experiences and activities and were taken from conversations and learnings shared throughout the programme. This report is aimed at those directly delivering work to create and maintain social connections, but we hope it will also be of use to those in the wider sector including funders and policy-makers.

Read the full report.

Read the summary report.

The future of the Connection Coalition: we’re continuing and recruiting!

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The Connection Coalition was formed in April 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Anticipating that the nation was at risk of a crisis of disconnection – and a worsening epidemic of loneliness and social isolation – we created a platform for organisations across the country to work collectively to ensure that communities and the country emerges from Covid-19 ready to build and strengthen social relationships. It was only ever intended to be a time-limited project but we tapped into something necessary and powerful.

Image by Penny Vincent, taken at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Member survey

In Spring 2022 we asked members about the challenges they are facing, their hopes for the future and what they want from the future of the Connection Coalition. You can read the report of our findings here.

We’re continuing

Based on the findings from this survey and our wider work from the past 2 years, the Jo Cox Foundation Board have agreed to the principle of continuing the Connection Coalition – moving it from a time-limited pandemic response network, to a longer term sustainable programme, so long as there is a need. Hurrah! A big thank you to those of you who have engaged with the Coalition over the past 2 years – responding to the member survey, participating in the Community of Practice, informal get togethers, running Meta Creative Connector projects and more. Your participation and our shared learning from these spaces conversations has helped us understand and evidence the needs and potential for the Coalition moving forwards.

Having joined the Jo Cox Foundation in 2021 as Connection Coalition Manager, in July I started a new role as Head of Community Programmes. I am heading up a newly formed team which includes our work on the Connection Coalition, plus our work across West Yorkshire, the Great Get Together and the More in Common Network. I started a couple of weeks ago and my first task is creating a strategy for this area of our work to feed into our new overall Jo Cox Foundation strategy for 2023-25. I am not having a quiet summer so far! But I am excited to be working with a brilliant team to help us increase our impact and make change led by the values by which Jo lived her life. All this means…

We’re recruiting for a Connection Coalition Manager

We are looking for someone with experience of facilitation and making connections who can lead the Connection Coalition into its next chapter and steward our cross-sector network of organisations, charities, companies and groups to create a better future for everyone by building strong relationships and connected communities.

Apply before midnight on Sunday 11th September 2022.

Find out more: https://www.jocoxfoundation.org/careers

If you want to discuss any ideas for the future of the Connection Coalition or our Jo Cox Foundation Communities work more broadly, I’d love to chat. Otherwise, we’ll be in touch in the Autumn introducing new opportunities to get involved in shaping the next chapter for the Connection Coalition. I’ll still be around, overseeing the development of the Coalition and hope to see you at an informal get together soon!

Zoe Cumberland

Head of Community Programmes

Connection Coalition youth loneliness network convenes for the first time

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The Connection Coalition: Youth Loneliness Panel, held on 16th December 2021, was held aiming to increase our understanding on the issue of youth loneliness. We shared some of the latest research and heard from various local projects, to help us better understand the barriers that community organisers face when tackling the issue of youth loneliness, so that we might address them in the future. 

The video of the event is available here. We heard from the following as part of the plenary discussions:

  • Andy Mortimer, Head of Communications, The Co-op Foundation
  • Su Moore, CEO, The Jo Cox Foundation
  • Mohammed Hanif, Trustee, Advancement of Community Empowerment CIC
  • Naomi Lea, Founder, Project Hope
  • Marianne Quinn, Senior PR and Comms Officer, The Jo Cox Foundation 
  • Jean Inglis, Volunteer Glasgow
  • Kevin Franks, CEO, Youth Focus North East 
  • Charlotte Hill, Tackling Loneliness Team, DCMS


In addition to the speakers we had over 30 participants from a wide range of organisations and backgrounds, including young people and representatives from local projects like The Wolfpack Project and The Big Red Bus Club, Local Authorities including Warwickshire County Council, and national organisations including The Reading Agency and the Campaign to End Loneliness. The themes from the breakout discussions were:

  • The role of language: the word and associations of ’loneliness’ often don’t resonate with young people. There were reflections and experience from youth work organisations on the use of positive framing working well – talking about health, wellbeing and making meaningful connections. One young person said talking about belonging was effective with her and her peers “you can feel connected but not belong – belonging comes up a lot”.
  • The role of transitions: young people shared their experiences of loneliness and how these often came in the move out of the formal education system, when moving away from home, and/or entering full time work. This aligned with the Co-op Foundation research which shows in school levels of loneliness are lower, and levels in young people aged 18+ were higher. There was conversation around how to make workplaces inclusive for young people when they are e.g. moving to new cities, there seems to be lots of talk but not a lot of action! Young people have been particularly impacted by the work from home mandate throughout the pandemic.
  • Engaging and involving young people in the conversation: Young people reflected on it being rare to see or hear from young people in conversations about youth loneliness. Across all age groups, it’s important to remember that there is diversity within young people – they are not a monolithic group – e.g. young people with English as a second language. Anyone working in this sector needs to go in without many preconceptions. Those with experience of working with young people say what works is having young people in the lead. Do the ‘loneliness sector’ who are increasingly recognising youth loneliness as an issue and wanting to work to tackle it, need training and support on how to meaningfully engage with young people to shape their work?

 

Next steps


The next convening for this network will be on Wednesday 2nd March, 3 – 4:30pm. Picking up one of the key themes from the first panel, we will be discussing engaging and involving young people in the conversation on youth loneliness. Participants will be invited to share their experiences of what works well, what doesn’t work, and any helpful tools and guidance we can capture and share. We will discuss whether or not a simple resource for professionals who work on loneliness but are new to working with young people might be helpful – perhaps with top tips and signposts to all the existing work and resources out there. If you would like to present your work or have other ideas on this topic to share, please contact [email protected]