Tackling loneliness

We’ve been tackling youth loneliness since Co-op research found young people feel lonely more than any other age group.

Since 2017, we’ve built a UK-wide network of partners connecting and empowering young people to beat loneliness and improve mental wellbeing. We’ve begun to work with our partners to create resources that will help youth workers better identify and tackle loneliness.

Thanks to fundraising from our supporters and our partnerships with government and the #iwill Fund, we’ve now awarded £7m to our youth partners to date. Read more in our Impact Report 2021.

Partnerships

#iwill

The #iwill Fund supports the #iwill campaign that aims to make social action a part of life for as many 10 to 20-year-olds as possible. We’ve already awarded almost £2 million in grants since we first partnered with the #iwill Fund in 2017 to help young people beat loneliness.

We announced a £3m extension to our #iwill Fund in August 2019, which will run until 2022. Funding will help young people improve community spaces, and provide peer support for other young people going through bereavement and moving from primary to secondary school. 

The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are each investing £20 million seed funding over four years to create the #iwill Fund. We act as a match funder and award grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.