Lonely Not Alone

A campaign co-designed with young people to tackle the stigma of youth loneliness and improve mental wellbeing.
Our digital universe

Lonely Not Alone is our campaign to tackle the stigma of youth loneliness. 

We have now stopped promoting the campaign, but the Lonely Not Alone digital universe is still live. This means lonely young people can still explore the universe and read stories and messages to remind them that they might be lonely, but they’re not alone. 

We’re so proud of everything young people have helped us to achieve since 2019 but now feels like the right time to focus on other issues young people want us to tackle through our campaign work. This decision has been informed by the diverse young people who helped to build our new five-year strategy and vision of future communities. 

History of Lonely Not Alone 

We believe co-operation is at the heart of strong communities. That’s why we worked with young people from across the UK between 2019 and 2023 to tackle the stigma of youth loneliness through our youth-led behaviour change campaign. We wanted to help young people feel more confident talking about loneliness to improve their mental wellbeing and deliver on Co-op’s vision of Co-operating for a Fairer World.  

At its peak, 25% of young people in the UK had heard about the campaign, and we now have over 300 stories and 70 messages of support on our beautiful digital universe that was co-designed with young people in 2021.  

Young people have helped us achieve so much since 2019 to tackle the stigma of youth loneliness and we want to make sure the extraordinary campaign they’ve created helps young people now and in the future. 

Although we are no longer promoting the campaign, there are a number of ways you can keep the conversation going about youth loneliness. 

A lasting legacy:   

  • Share our Lonely Not Alone digital universe with young people so they can explore the universe, read stories and be reminded that they might be lonely, but they’re not alone. 
  • Download our youth work pack to host a session to help young people feel more confident talking about loneliness 
  • Read our tips on how to combat youth loneliness, as suggested by young people on our digital universe 
  • Catch up on our learning webinar to find out everything we learned over the last five years and what our recommendations would be 

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