Igniting the Power of Community to Overcome Social Isolation

Connect: Building a More Connected Barking and Dagenham

Connect is a borough-wide initiative which brings voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise organisations together across Barking and Dagenham to support residents who are socially isolated. The programme is led by Care City on behalf of the BD Collective.

Commissioned by London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, the Connect team is building long-term, trusting 1:1 relationships with residents, through which residents can imagine new possibilities, pursue their ambitions and build agency to overcome personal obstacles to connection. 

Connect is also exploring the ingredients of “friendly neighbourhoods”, that can spark and sustain connections between residents over time.

Since launch, Connect has worked intensively with over 100 residents facing isolation—helping people feel seen, valued and empowered. By reducing reliance on crisis services and encouraging deep, lasting social bonds, the programme is projected to save over £3.29 million in public money across these 100 residents—delivering £9 in value for every £1 invested.

But just as important as the numbers is the learning. Through this work, we’ve come to understand something vital: connection starts with the feeling that we matter—both to ourselves and to others.

What we’re learning

• We need to be intentional about welcoming people into new spaces and be watchful of getting lost in “delivering” activities. We’ve spoken many times about the significance of what happens when someone takes a first step into a new group, activity or community. We’ve seen how the camaraderie and the energy that can exist between long term members of any group can result in new joiners feeling unintentionally excluded, or thinking: “Do they really need or want me here?” In contrast, we’ve seen the power of small, human gestures—warm welcomes, invitations to contribute and share–and remembering that “it’s the people that matter” more than our schedules for running activities.
  
• Creating opportunities to contribute helps people see themselves in a new light, but requires curiosity to get right – We started Connect with a core belief that people feel more connected to a community if they are able to shape what it looks like. Through our work, we have seen how this can transform the way people see themselves, in a way that unlocks longer term connection. This requires being genuinely interested and curious about residents and looking beyond our first impressions of them or the value they bring. This is what will make Connect truly sustainable – focusing away from “fixing people” and towards supporting people to move from recipients of support to active contributors in their communities.
  
• Authentic connections come from a sense of mutual humanity: We’ve been keen to help people build their connections in ways that feel natural and replicate how community forms organically. We had seen how meaningful connections don’t result from simply throwing people together into groups, but they start to click when there is a sense of shared vulnerability and true listening between people. It’s been important to model this in 1:1 interactions with residents we are working alongside. This means being vulnerable enough ourselves to loosen professional foundries where appropriate – to shrink the sense of a big difference between those who need help and those who give help (an “us and them” mindset). It means working to build a sense of common humanity between everyone who lives in the borough.

Shifting the System

The Connect approach challenges traditional service models by focusing not just on needs but on potential. We look beyond fixed behaviours or past identities, especially for those impacted by stigma, long-term isolation, or changing physical or mental health. With patience and curiosity, we work to build safety, trust, and self-expression for residents—working alongside them to move towards what’s most meaningful to them.

This work has already begun to shift how organisations think about social isolation and community building. It’s sparked new ways of working that are more relational, inclusive, and, most of all, “human”.

Looking Ahead

We’re exploring what it means to make Barking and Dagenham a truly connection-friendly borough—especially for people who are housebound or face barriers due to disability. That means creating environments where everyone, regardless of circumstance, can feel they belong, contribute, and thrive.Connect is more than a programme. It’s a growing movement for change—powered by the belief that everyone deserves to feel they matter.

Additional Reading

Read our project participant stories – Understanding people’s individual stories in order to develop a personalised approach to help people with their recovery is key to success.

What makes people feel like they truly matter – At Connect, we believe that social connection starts with people knowing they are seen, valued and heard. In our latest learning reflections, we explore how a sense of mattering—to others and to ourselves—underpins meaningful connection. From designing inclusive community spaces to co-creating opportunities for people to contribute, our work is showing that small, intentional acts of welcome and curiosity make a big difference.

Emily Brook’s blog “Building the space for friendship in Barking & Dagenham” reflects on our aim of creating societies that have more space for people to care about each other.

James Sinclair’s blog “Building a community system resilience model to tackle social isolation” looks at what we can do about social isolation when a lack of social connections seems such a societally embedded problem.·        Sarah Trott’s blog “Design Thinking, Journey Mapping, Prototyping. Project reflections from our intern” shares her project reflections & some of the tools she created to capture, learn from and share the lived experience of project participants.

We want to share our learning with other places and continue to learn from those experiencing feelings of loneliness or isolation. If you want to help or learn more about our programme of work, email us at theteam@carecity.org