Let’s end loneliness - for young and old

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Today, North London Cares' and our sister charity South London Cares' founder, Alex Smith, spoke at the Campaign to End Loneliness annual conference. Read Alex's blog on some of the issues and trends unique to urban settings like ours that lead us to do what we do...

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It's not normal for me to travel to work by cab, of course, but this morning, as I collected and escorted our good friend and local celeb Lil to the Campaign to End Lonelinessannual conference to speak about our work, I was grateful for the moment's pause it afforded to reflect, through the condensation and droplets of November rain, on a busy city going about its daily grind.

It was rush hour, and everywhere I looked people obliged the title. Nobody stopped to share a glance. Nobody I saw lifted their heads to smile to a stranger. Most people were immersed in the narrower world of smartphones, or music internalised through little white headphones. Some people carried coffee cups, some bought from machines; others tapped Oyster cards on 'card readers', rarely stopping to acknowledge the man or woman behind the glass.

It reminded me once again that the modern world is isolating, for all of us. Our capital city, for all its advances in technology, economy, infrastructure, has unwittingly dissolved so many of the things that make us human. For most of us, there's opportunity in that. For many older people, it's a distant bridge that brings deep anxiety and isolation.

The digitisation of our world is just one trend which is discombobulating for our older neighbours. Globalisation, gentrification, the housing bubble and migration - all interlinked trends way beyond any of our control as individuals or even as a society - have made this world one in which many older people feel left behind.

Gone are the days of knowing all your neighbours. Gone too are the times when sons, daughters, nephews and nieces live in the same block, or on the same street. Now, it's a student from Orkney, a young professional from Rio, a busy young family buying housing as an investment. That sometimes doesn't feel neighbourly at all.

These five trends are what leave our communities frayed, and our older neighbours particularly fretted.

That's why North London Cares and our sister charity South London Cares do what we do - so that people from those many different communities can come together to share time, practical help, social connection and human companionship to help tackle urban isolation. Our objective is to reduce loneliness and isolation, to improve confidence, resilience, wellbeing and connection so that people can navigate the modern world, and to bridge long-standing social and generational divides.

Our projects - Social Clubs, Love Your Neighbour, and Winter Wellbeing - identify isolation through pro-active outreach campaigns, and connect people to one another to build relationships over time, to expand trust and understanding within local communities, to celebrate unique personalities and to share familiarity and, ultimately, fun.

Because although we live in the most connected age in history, in many ways it's also the most isolating. In a city like London, many of us know hundreds, even thousands of people. Some of us can stay digitally connected. But how many really deep, meangingful relationships do we have? In a transient time, probably not as many as we used to.

So please do sign up, volunteer, get to know your local area - its history, its people and the stories that neighbours love to tell. If you're anything like me, you'll feel better for that moment's pause.