This week, I had the privilege of visiting Number 10 Downing Street as part of The Great Get Together, organised by the Jo Cox Foundation and the Prime Minister’s team.
The visit came ahead of Loneliness Awareness Week and follows more than a year of work alongside researchers, charities, businesses and policymakers on a cross-government call to action urging greater recognition of social connection as a national priority.
Walking through that famous black door was undoubtedly a surreal experience.
Five years ago, if someone had told me that I would one day be invited to discuss loneliness and social connection at the heart of government, I wouldn’t have believed them.
Personally and professionally, it was a powerful landmark moment and a reminder of just how far we’ve come. It was the speeches that took place inside.
The Prime Minister and Kim Leadbeater MP, sister of Jo Cox, delivered powerful reflections on the state of our country and the challenges we face today.
Ten years ago, Jo Cox was murdered by a man fuelled by division and hate.
Reflecting on the decade since Jo Cox’s death, the Prime Minister shared a stark assessment. Far from moving forward, he believes that in many ways we have gone backwards.
Looking around the world – and indeed at events much closer to home in recent weeks – it’s difficult not to see what he means.
And for us at The Great Friendship Project, it brought us back to an uncomfortable but important truth: loneliness is not just a personal challenge.
It can be a painful and deeply damaging experience that affects everything from our health and wellbeing to our confidence and how we see the world.
But on a societal level, left unaddressed, it can also contribute to mistrust, disengagement and a growing sense of separation from the people around us.
And in the vacuum where connection and community should be, narratives built on fear, division and hatred are given space to grow, whilst those seeking to exploit those divisions are allowed to prosper.
Through our work with the Policy Action Group and a growing coalition of partners, we’ll continue to push for meaningful action and ensure that social connection remains firmly on the agenda.
But government action alone is not enough. As the Prime Minister emphasised throughout his speech, each of us also has a role to play.
Checking in on a friend. Helping a neighbour. Showing up for your community. And perhaps most importantly, choosing connection over division.
After all – as Jo Cox famously said “we have far more in common than that which divides us”.
In an increasingly divided world, there has never been a more important time to remember – and live by – those words.
If you’d like to learn more about the changes we’re calling for, you can read the full cross-government call to action below.
