ABOUT US
OUR VISION TO END LONELINESS IN THE UK
Our primary focus is on working with local churches and Christian organisations in addressing loneliness. We do this through passing on our tried and tested approaches of befriending in ways that complement existing local work.
For many years, there has been concern about the negative impact that loneliness has on people of all ages. Churches are in an ideal position to respond to this, and many have been doing so for many years. We have been working on a national level since 2012 and we have identified effective responses and practical tools which can be used in all areas.
Our long term goal is to establish befriending schemes in every county of the UK which impact the lives particularly of older people.
%
Of Adults
feel occasionally, sometimes or often lonely in England. This equates to twenty five million people.
cigarettes a day
has the same effect on your health as loneliness, living alone and poor social connections does.
%
of those aged 85
and over and 38% of those aged 75 to 84 live alone in England.
people aged 60+
say television is their main company.
%
Increase
in your risk of death if you suffer from loneliness.
older people
go at least five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone at all.
Our Values
As a Christian charity, we believe that God’s ideal is for us to live in ‘community’. The first thing that God said was not good was ‘for man to be alone’ (Genesis 2:18). There are many other examples in the Bible which challenge us to specifically reach out to and support those on the margins of society, this motivates us as a charity in all of our work.
Our strapline summarises our core focus at every level of the charity:
“Improving quality of life through friendship”
The values of Linking Lives UK reflect the importance that we place in building good quality relationships with all those with whom we come into contact. This is carried out within the context of our Christian ethos:
- We want to serve those who are most alone and to bring hope
- We particularly value one to one relationships
- At the heart of everything we do is the love of Jesus
- We want to build mutually beneficial relationships of trust
- We deeply value understanding everyone’s story acknowledging that we are all equal
‘A Father to the fatherless is God in His holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families’ (Ps 68: 5-6)
AWARDS
Linking Lives UK was nominated by Cinnamon Network for an award at the 2016 Christian Funders Forum Awards event in Lambeth Palace, and we received the Silver Award in our category of ‘Best Replicable Project’. This award acknowledged the effectiveness of our approach in enabling churches across the UK to address loneliness and social isolation.
WHO WE WORK WITH
We believe that there is often added benefit in our work if we partner with and coordinate activities with other similar organisations on a regional or national level. We are currently actively engaged in partnerships with the following organisations:
toGETHER NETWORK
We are Associate Members of Church Urban Fund’s Together Network, a network of Christian charities based in England that are committed to tackling poverty and transforming communities. Church Urban Fund serves the Together Network as host and facilitator, coordinating activities and providing resources enabling collective aims to be met.
CHRISTIANS TOGETHER AGAINST LONELINESS (CTAL)
Linking Lives UK was one of the founder members of (CTAL) which is made up of eight national Christian charities working together to address loneliness. We meet regularly to share ideas, plan joint initiatives and raise the issue of loneliness among churches on a national level.