Who we are

The Campaign to End Loneliness is a coalition of organisations and individuals working together through research, policy, campaigning and innovation to combat loneliness and inspire individuals to keep connected in older age in the UK.

The team is a small, core team based in London and includes:

Our Director, Laura Ferguson, who shapes our relationships with our partners, manages our projects and works with our management group to set our direction and with our evaluation team to monitor and evaluate our work.

Our Coordinator, Anna Goodman, who writes our policy, press and media materials, coordinates our responses across our 20+ partners, is our main press contact and responds to your general enquiries.

Our Campaigns Officer, Marianne Symons, works with national partners and local groups in fives areas in England from April 2012 until September 2013 on our project to raise awareness of the problem of loneliness in older age among local Health and Wellbeing Boards.

The management group consists of five organisations that direct and lead the long term work of the Campaign to End Loneliness, meeting every two months. The representatives from these organisations reflect the Campaign’s activities and specialisms and range from Chief Executives, an Elected Councillor, a Head of Public Policy and a Policy Officer.

Our management group partner biographies are here.

The action groups support specific projects and activities of the Campaign. Their role is to contribute to specific operational delivery of these projects, such as providing communications editing, press release writing and distribution, temporary office space, local activist contacts and visible public support through attending events and acting as official spokespeople.

The Research Hub creates a quarterly Research Bulletin to keep all Campaign supporters up to date with the latest research into loneliness and isolation; identifies gaps in the academic research on the issue and aims to create new research for the benefit of both practitioners and academics.

Our Research Hub page can be found here

Our supporters (both individuals and organisations) respond to our calls to take part in government consultations; raise awareness of the hidden issue of loneliness in older age among their peers and from summer 2012 will be able to get involved in our local campaigns to raise awareness of the problem of loneliness in older age among local health and wellbeing commissioners.

The more people talking about the hidden issue of loneliness, the better: we believe that everyone and every organisation can make a difference to older people who are isolated or lonely. Talking about the issue is the first step to breaking down the stigma that is often associated with loneliness.

Our funding

The Campaign is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which is an international charitable foundation with cultural, educational, social and scientific interests. Based in Lisbon with branches in London and Paris, the Foundation is in a privileged position to support transnational work tackling contemporary issues in Europe.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has been involved in the Campaign since its inception and we are based at their office in London. They also fund an extensive evaluation for the Campaign which is undertaken with the Charities Evaluation Services.