Ambassador Spotlight: ‘Working together to tackle loneliness this Winter’

n.b – At the time of writing, Sarah was serving in her role at Clarion Housing Group.

Working together to tackle loneliness this Winter

By Sarah Mitton

The Campaign to End Loneliness states that loneliness is one of the largest public health challenges we face, with those from lower socio-economic backgrounds being more likely to feel lonely due to inequity in resources like “employment, education, access to health services and public transport” as well as not being able “to afford activities or opportunities to socialise” (Campaign to End Loneliness, 2024).

At Clarion, we know we have a part to play in tackling this epidemic and over the last few years have been working with other housing providers to think about the role we can all play in bettering the experience of our diverse communities.

Clarion’s Age Friendly Strategy

In 2020 we launched Clarion’s Age Friendly Strategy, an approach to communities focused on ensuring that those living in our homes and neighbourhoods can live positive and healthy lives no matter what age. We know that social isolation and loneliness is not just experienced by one age segment, but can affect people across a life-course, and so one of the key commitments of the strategy is investing in projects and programmes to tackle the issue.

One of the projects that was co-designed with our Clarion55 ambassadors (a national network of residents representing our over 55s community), is The Wellbeing10. The Wellbeing10 encourages our Clarion Response maintenance staff to spend an extra 10 minutes in a resident’s home if they feel that there are signs of social isolation or loneliness to have an ‘informal chat’. These signs were outlined in a toolkit created by Clarion55 with information about what to do if poor wellbeing is spotted, including referring into wider Clarion services. Hundreds of residents have now benefited from the extra time, with Clarion Response staff also sharing that it has improved their own wellbeing in work.

Intergenerational Social Action Programme

Another offer that was created in partnership with our younger residents is our Intergenerational Social Action programme, which we were able to match-fund with the #iWill Fund. Intergenerational social action engages younger and older people in co-designing solutions to the challenges faced by our communities including social isolation and loneliness. With funding offered to hyper-local organisations supporting our neighbourhoods, the programme has led to projects exploring how gardening groups, heritage events and intergenerational cookery sessions can connect generations and tackle the loneliness prevalent in both age groups. Over 600 people have engaged in the programme since September 2023, and we are about to launch the second year of the project.
We know that for many the sense of loneliness is deep-rooted and longer-term support is needed. Therefore, during the pandemic we started investing in two projects offering ongoing support to residents who might be struggling. Lend an Ear is a telephone befriending service which sees Clarion staff volunteering their time to befriend a resident, offering regular phone catch ups. Me in Mind is another programme which seeks to tackle mental health challenges faced by people living in our communities by giving access to a website with tools and resources to support people who are struggling.

Challenging times during the Festive Season

As we approach winter and Christmas, we know the prevalence of loneliness in our communities rises. In fact, Mental Health UK states that 73% of people say they have experienced loneliness in the festive season. We have therefore partnered with the Rothesay Foundation over the last 18 months to fund warm spaces in our localities offering residents across our communities access to a hot drink, food, a warm pack, and most importantly an opportunity to connect with others. We have also just launched our Low-Cost Tech programme in partnership with The Hallmark Foundation. The pilot scheme is offering Google Nest Hubs to a group of older residents living in our independent living schemes in order to better understand the role technology might play in tackling loneliness. Our Digital Team are supporting 56 residents to get online and use the devices as part of the programme, working with them to install a range of apps that connect them to community opportunities, their families and entertainment.

New Challenges & New Innovations

The cost-of-living crisis which many of our residents are currently facing also poses new challenges for housing providers, exacerbating the issue by further limiting our residents’ ability to access projects and opportunities that might offer social connection. Therefore, I am delighted to be joining the advisory group for the DCMS Loneliness Hub as I believe in partnership with other organisations we can find new ways to address the challenges we face – learning from one another and working together on projects.
We need to think innovatively about how we can ensure the issue does not continue to worsen and for me the answer lies with our residents themselves. By working closely with those living in our communities we can better understand the root causes of loneliness and collaborate to develop solutions to the issue.

Additionally, we will achieve more by working in partnership not only with other housing associations (who may have great ideas and programmes which could be jointly funded) but with other sectors, such as health and education. We are starting to do this as part of Intergenerational England, an organisation which is seeking to tackle age-related inequity by recognising the importance of intergenerational practice.

A truly connected approach is the only way we can finally tackle this crisis.

Contact the Author

Sarah can be contacted on the hub and on LinkedIn

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