Connected Gloucestershire
The Connected Gloucestershire Alliance is a movement that promotes coordinated action to foster strong connections and reduce the pain of loneliness in Gloucestershire.
This project is currently hosted by Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance, but it is very much a partnership project with the VCSE sector, statutory organisations, funders and local communities.
Background information
In September 2023, 40 community and voluntary sector leaders came together at a summit, hosted by Age UK Gloucestershire, to consider the issue of loneliness in the county. Those who attended proposed the setting up of an ‘Ending Loneliness in Gloucestershire’ Alliance as a campaign action group, hosted by Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance. In September 2024, we invited representatives from local VCSE sector groups/organisations, statutory organisations, funders and communities to our launch event in September 2024.
Ahead of the event, we drafted an aspirational vision statement to be explored in more detail:
“That no one in Gloucestershire experiences the pain and damage of loneliness because we set our communities up well both to promote healthy relationships between citizens and to support those who have less social contact than they want”
And suggested the potential mission that the Connected Gloucestershire Alliance will work to achieve is:
That the fundamental importance of human connections are better understood and recognised in Gloucestershire as a vital part of the health and wellbeing of our citizens.
That there is a co-ordinated approach to the measures that our communities, VCSE organisations and statutory bodies are taking to address and prevent loneliness.
fter the event, we created a document to concisely summarise where those conversations have been landing and to steer us towards the actions we can take as a county to do something about prioritising connection. The paper was collated by Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance who are holding this space for now.
Much of the talking has been driven by VCSE organisations, and our sector is already highly active in seeking to provide support to those who are suffering from the impact of disconnection. More than just provide a record of conversations held, this document brings to the forefront the suggested actions and ideas. So whilst there is a lot of information in the appendices, the main proposals are in the initial 8 pages. These include ideas and draft campaigns that are not intended to be finalised, but to give us a starting point to refine.
This document was and continues to be circulated to maintain momentum around this issue and as part of continuing to see this as essentially a wicked problem that needs wide collaborative endeavour to shift. You can download the Paper below: