The Great Friendship Project allows Londoners in their 20s and 30s to connect with those across the city to combat rising levels of loneliness among young people.
According to an August 2024 report by the Centre for Social Justice, 70% of 18-24-year-olds felt lonely at least some of the time.
The project prides itself on a variety of different activities to help varying groups of people find friendships in the community.
Project founder David Gradon said: “It’s really important to have spaces like this because if loneliness becomes chronic, you can see it start impacting someone very quickly and it can lead to heightened aggression, anxiety and suicide ideation.
“There’s some real devastating impact that chronic loneliness can have, so our work is very much designed to prevent that before it gets too entrenched and it becomes very hard to help people because they’ve been fighting against a range of other mental health challenges that might prevent them from connecting.”
Gradon founded the project in 2021 as a response to his own experiences of loneliness during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said: “Coming out of the pandemic, I really wanted to rebuild and look at how I could start to meet people again.
“I started going to social activities and events and found that a lot of the events out there today are around sports, which I initially tried but got injured.
“Because of that, all my options were now curtailed, so I had to look at other means.
“What I found was that everything was either highly-priced or events where you wouldn’t see the same person twice.
“I had a clear idea of what I needed at that point and it wasn’t there, so trying to scour constantly for something that just didn’t fit, I decided to just make it myself.”
The project initially started as a social walk every Sunday for people of a similar age, but interest in the project quickly grew.
Now, the project runs three or four events per week, taking events that other organisations may put on at a high cost, but making them accessible, social and fun.
Some of the events they put on include musical acoustic nights, silent discos, walks, pub crawls, karaoke and arts and crafts.
Gradon said: “We’ve had a massive societal shift towards online interactions.
“We’ve found a way to take everything we used to do in person and found a way to do it online, so a lot of people’s interactions now take place on digital platforms.
“A lot of things never happen because they ‘never make it out of the group chat’, because there’s not a lot of obvious spaces where young people can go out to meet each other.
“So, what we’re trying to do is to try and mitigate that by creating regular opportunities where you can manufacture that contact.”
The project’s work has had a significant impact on the lives of Londoners across the city.
Noah found the project online, looking for social groups in London.
He said: “I feel like it’s been quite life-changing, I have so many more friends now since attending and my mental health has improved dramatically.
“It’s given me something to do in the week outside of just working and it’s meant that I enjoy the city a lot more and I enjoy spending my time and evenings doing things now, whereas before I felt a little bit lost and a little bit stranded.”
Lena found the project last summer after returning to London following a period of living abroad.
She said: “It’s been really interesting, it’s been a great avenue to get into contact with so many more people in their 20s and 30s, people who I can relate to especially because for me, by the time I returned to London, your friends are in different places and your social landscape looks very different and that was the case for me.
“Having groups like the Great Friendship Project has been really nice and I’ve attended a lot of events over the past year.
“I’ve met a lot of people and kept in contact with them, and it’s helped me increase my levels of socialisation in a way that makes me feel so much better in life.”
For more information on The Great Friendship Project, visit their website.
Feature image: Steph Chambers (IG: @Stephvchambers) for The Great Friendship Project, with permission
Join the discussion