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Loneliness Awareness Week helped to highlight lots of the amazing connection building activities and events that happen across the UK and globally.
We wanted to share a few examples of organisations who run regular activities and got involved with the campaign:
The Lonely Girls Club has digital forums, a newsletter and weekly events running across the UK, all focused on our mission to help you make friends, have fun and find support! It's a community with over 80k members and growing daily.
They held Lonely Girls Club Walks for Loneliness Awareness Week and have active community forums where members can post, share and chat with others online. Plus they run weekly events across the country for members to attend solo, have fun, connect with others and leave having met an incredible group of people to start building friendships with.
Virtual Village Hall is a free online activity hub and community to help people stay mentally and physically active, socially connected and having fun, as well as supporting them
to better manage their health, including long-term health conditions. The VVH offers 12-15 live activity sessions every week via social media and an extensive archive of 2,000 sessions to view on demand on YouTube and the VVH website.
Content is updated regularly and all sessions are hosted by expert tutors and presenters, including some well-known faces. Activities include gentle exercise and dance classes (including adapted and seated sessions), yoga and meditation, cooking, crafts, creative writing and more. It is a friendly, welcoming community and followers are encouraged to chat with tutors, the VVH moderators and each other in the comments during sessions.
Camerados is a social movement of folk who set up Public Living Rooms in their communities, places for people to connect and you never know who you may meet in one. A camerado is often described as being halfway between a stranger and a friend.
There are almost 250 Public Living Rooms taking place regularly, many took place during Loneliness Awareness Week and will continue so do check out if there is one local to you and if not then you could even think about setting one up!
Host Family Stay offers an opportunity to connect through hosting an overseas student - it’s a great way to make new friends and learn about other cultures.
They recently articulated in their blog how hosting can help people to find new connections. Geraldine, started hosting students from Italy and Germany, immersing herself in their cultures and trying new foods. This human interaction brought a spark to her life that had been missing for years.
There are over 600 active Chatty Cafe venues around the UK which got involved with Loneliness Awareness Week this year. The aim of the Chatter & Natter tables is to kickstart conversations, get people chatting and reduce loneliness along the way.
Check out if there is a cafe near you which you could pop to and make some new connections.
Adopt a Grandparent is an organisation that pairs volunteers with the elderly community to help bring people together and enable them to forge meaningful and lasting relationships.
Volunteers are paired with an older person who has similar interests. and supported to have a weekly video call.
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