Introduction to Re-engage

Re-engage is a charity that's positive about older age and committed to fighting loneliness so that people can have social lives and friendship groups however old they are.  We inspire and enable meaningful connections and shared experiences within communities across the UK for people over 75 facing loneliness and social isolation.  On a case-by-case basis or as part of an agreed partnership, we sometimes work with older people under 75 as well.

Re-engage volunteers work together to create better communities and help to enrich the lives of our members by giving them something to look forward to. Older people who may have felt very alone, now feel valued as individuals. We make sure that people know they’re important well into old age. Respectful, determined, warm, pioneering, and local: we're Re-engage and we're bringing generations together.

Our structure

Re-engage is a volunteer-powered organisation with 9,200 volunteers who support more than 6,500 older people across the UK. However, it has a small team of staff, who work together supporting older people and volunteers as well as doing essential work in the background to keep the charity running smoothly.

We've presented our organisational chart here to help you understand how we are all interlinked.

Learn more about our senior leadership team and our trustees.

Our services

Re-engage has long been known for its tea parties and this is at the heart of our befriending work. In 2019, we introduced community Christmas and, in 2020, we extended our work to telephone befriending, with our new call companion service. In 2021 we expanded services further, introducing activity groups in Wales and Yorkshire. In early 2022 we launched rainbow call companions and as Age Concern Crosby became part of Re-engage, we added to the list of our services in that area: flicks and friends, a cinema club, and a lunch club. We've ambitions to explore more face-to-face befriending options and other activities across the UK.

In addition to this core work, we've several grant-funded projects and research projects which are helping us to help older people make meaningful connections.

We've a strong commitment to finding creative solutions to the long-term problems of social isolation and loneliness amongst older people.

Re-engage’s vision and mission

Over the last 20 years, the number of people over 75 who live alone has gone up to 2.2m. All too often, loneliness is the reality for older people - nearly half of the UK’s older people say the TV is their main source of company.

The purpose of our charity is to provide social connections for older people at a time in their lives when their social circles are diminishing.

Our vision:

“is a world where no one is ever too old to make friends and enjoy social interaction.”

Our mission:

“is to work within communities to end social isolation and loneliness in older people.”

Our strategic objectives

Our goal is to reach thousands more isolated older people and our strategy maps out how we will achieve this.

The seven pillars of our REACH further strategy are:

• Reduce loneliness amongst the ‘oldest old’
• Empower our volunteers and staff
• Amplify the voices of older people
• Challenge ageism
• Harness technology
• Innovate
• Influence

Underpinning each of these pillars are goals to diversify our activities and the older people we reach, enhance the Re-engage volunteer experience and grow our brand awareness.

Find out more about our history.

Our responsibilities as a charity

Being part of the charity sector is a huge privilege. The UK charity sector spends over £40 billion each year helping millions of people in the UK and around the world. Our job is to find sustainable solutions to problems which can seem intractable – and to do this with integrity and accountability.

Monitoring of risk and ensuring safeguarding and best practice are at the heart of why charities are best placed to do the work that they do.

The charity sector would be nothing without the millions of volunteers who make this work possible. At Re-engage, volunteers have an important role to play in making sure we're working in line with all the necessary regulations and best practice.

At Re-engage, the trustees and leadership team take their duties to follow the charity governance code very seriously. We're regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

Charities working with vulnerable people must have safeguarding policies and training in place. Mandatory training for specific volunteer and staff roles is in place at Re-engage, as are proportional criminal records checks whereby we require many volunteers and staff to have DBS or PVG checks. If something goes wrong, we’ll report to the authorities in line with our serious incident reporting policy.

We hold personal data on many thousands of older people and volunteers in line with our Privacy Policy and take our duties under the Data Protection Act very seriously. We're registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We couldn’t do what we do without the generosity of our donors. We work in accordance with our Donation Acceptance Policy. We follow the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice and are members of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

Our suite of policies exists to ensure the safety of everyone involved within the charity. These are regularly reviewed and updated by our trustees.

Examples of the impact of our services

“My volunteer, Jane, rings me every week and we always have a really long chat, which I love because I love to talk. The calls mean so much to me - usually she’s the first person I’ve spoken to in days. I’m on my own and live in a block of flats, so it’s very difficult to get out and about.”

“The person who calls me has become a friend and I’m not someone who’s ever been particularly good at making new friendships. After the calls I always feel a sense of relief that somebody out there values my company.”

Find out more

If you've a question check our constantly growing FAQ section where you'll find a huge library of information at your fingertips.