Re-engage

As I'm writing this in a café in Kentish Town, there's an elderly man behind me with two younger women teaching him how to use his laptop. They don't seem to be getting very far, but they seem to be having a very good time trying. After about 20 minutes they give up and he asks if they'd go for a walk with him, to which they duly oblige, and he leaves the café with them smiling and laughing. I obviously don't know the situation but I could see how much joy he derived from being with younger people. It made me think of my own elderly relatives and how important it is to make sure they're not alone and staying active and busy.

For a lot of people, there may not be a support network to ensure that happens. As people age, they often face shrinking social circles due to retirement, bereavement, or health problems, and many older adults, particularly those over 75, may go days or even weeks without meaningful contact. Elderly loneliness has deep impacts on both physical and mental health — research shows that chronic loneliness can be as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, increasing the risk of heart disease, depression, dementia, and early death.  Beyond health, loneliness also erodes a person’s sense of dignity, self-worth, and connection to the wider community, making it a major public health and social cohesion challenge.

Re-engage tackles elderly loneliness by creating regular opportunities for isolated older people to build real, lasting friendships. They run small, local social groups across London like tea parties and activity clubs, organize one-to-one "call companion" programs where volunteers make weekly friendship calls, and set up community outings tailored to people who find it hard to get out and about. Their focus is specifically on people aged 75 and older who live alone or in sheltered housing, and who often have very few other social outlets. 

Their model is simple, low-cost, and highly personal — everything revolves around small, manageable groups led by local volunteers who build consistent, genuine relationships over time. Rather than a one-off intervention, Re-engage offers ongoing companionship, recognizing that loneliness isn’t "fixed" by a single event. Their volunteer-driven approach allows donations to go almost entirely into frontline support rather than overheads, and their systems are flexible enough to adapt (for example, rapidly pivoting to phone-based programs during the COVID-19 lockdowns), making their impact both deep and sustainable.