Ambassador Spotlight: Building on Jo Cox’s legacy to address loneliness

The latest blog in our Ambassador Spotlight series has been written by our Ambassador for Civil Society and VCSFO’s, Will Fletcher.

Jo Cox famously said, “I will not live in a country where thousands of people are living lonely lives forgotten by the rest of us.”

She knew from her own experiences of loneliness – both when she started university and as a young mum – just how pernicious it can be. And when she became first a candidate and then an MP, she heard story after story from people who were struggling with loneliness and feeling isolated when she went canvassing and spoke to members of her community in Batley & Spen.

Jo was the kind of person who believed in rising to the challenge. We often say at The Jo Cox Foundation that Jo didn’t believe there should be any such thing as the ‘too difficult’ pile. So it’s no surprise that, when she became an MP, she rolled her sleeves up and was determined to do something about loneliness.

It was this conviction that drove Jo to establish a cross-party commission on loneliness with Seema Kennedy, then a Conservative MP. As I’m sure many of you know, after Jo’s murder this commission became known as The Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness.

The commission’s report was massively influential. It laid the groundwork for a national conversation about loneliness, and led directly to the appointment of the UK’s first Minister for Loneliness and the publication of the government’s loneliness strategy. It established here in the UK as world leaders in governmental approaches to addressing loneliness.

There’s been a lot of work undertaken by a great many organisations in the seven years since the strategy was first published, to help us move towards Jo’s vision of a country where we don’t leave chronic loneliness unaddressed. We’ve also seen the world continue to change at pace, from the impact of the pandemic, to the rise of remote working and the ever-changing role that technology plays in our lives.

Amidst it all, when I talk to other professionals in the loneliness space, there’s a feeling that the UK risks wasting its head start, and that other countries are catching up to us and overtaking us when it comes to addressing loneliness.

It’s for that reason that we’ve recently established a Loneliness Policy Action Group at the Jo Cox Foundation. So that we can work with partners to keep pushing for more action to address loneliness, regain our place as world leaders, and honour Jo’s legacy in establishing loneliness as a national priority in the first place.

We’ll look forward to updating you all on the progress of the group and the work that we undertake. In the meantime, you can find out more about it on the Foundation’s website: Loneliness Policy Action Group

Biography

Will Fletcher

Will Fletcher

Will is Interim CEO at The Jo Cox Foundation, where he’s worked since November 2021.
He’s previously worked for a variety of charities in the youth, education and LGBTQ sectors, undertaking a range of roles which have led him to working in charity operations. Will is a serial volunteer with a keen interest in governance and is currently a governor at his local secondary school and the Chair of Derbyshire Mind. He lives in Derbyshire with his two dogs, where he is a District and Parish Councillor.