Tackling Loneliness and Isolation: Findings from the evaluation of our Connecting Communities service

In May 2017 the Co-op and British Red Cross launched the Connecting Communities service in over 30 locations around
the UK. They commissioned the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield to independently
evaluate the service and the outcomes for service users. It is one of the first evaluations of a large-scale national social prescribing scheme to reduce loneliness and which tracks changes in loneliness over time. The evaluation has provided a significant amount of learning about how our service, and other social prescribing services can be used to reduce loneliness and social isolation. The key findings are explained further in this report.