Tackling loneliness through the built environment and the spaces we share

Session 2: Making less lonely places: how do we make it happen? What are the research/policy/practice barriers to making positive change and how do we overcome them? 

 Online event: Thursday 7 July from 2-4pm (BST)

This is the second of our Research and Policy Forums on Loneliness and the Built Environment. We will be hearing from speakers and discussion panel members with extensive experience and expertise in bringing about change in housing and neighbourhood environments to encourage social connection and address loneliness.

This is a follow- up session to our previous event which we held as part of our series Tackling loneliness through the built environment and the spaces we share. You don't have to attend our previous session to get the most out of this webinar. 

Details of speakers are below: 

Tackling loneliness through the built environment and the spaces we share:

Session 2 Thursday 7th July : Making places less lonely – how do we make it happen

Nicola Bacon is co-founder of Social Life, a social enterprise specialising in research and community projects exploring how people are affected by changes in the built environment. Nicola will talk about their work with residents, planners, architects, housing providers and local authorities to improve the social sustainability of communities. Their work involves use of neighbourhood-focused research, community participation design projects, social sustainability assessments, and training for architects and planners.

Natalie Turner is Deputy Director for Localities at the Centre for Ageing Better where her role is to help create more places where people can enjoy later life. Her team works through strategic partnerships with Greater Manchester, Leeds, and Lincolnshire, as well as providing support to the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities. She will share her knowledge of using national and local policy levers to establish more connected communities.

Sarah Mitton is Age Friendly Communities Manager for Clarion Housing Group, Britain’s largest housing association. Clarion is a developer of affordable homes as well as a landlord and has a commitment to social sustainability of their developments. Sarah is also chair of the Age-Friendly Communities Network, set up to bring together HA's from across the sector to ensure our communities support residents to age well across their lifetimes. Sarah will join a panel to discuss ideas about how to bring about changes to the built environment which address loneliness within policy and resource constraints.

Graham Marshall is an Urban Design expert and director of social enterprise, Prosocial Place which has a mission to refocus design policy and practice towards social wellbeing as the key outcome for any place. Graham developed the Prosocial Place action research programme with Professor Rhiannon Corcoran (University of Liverpool) via a formal knowledge exchange with the University. He has recently led work for the Department for Communities Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment for Northern Ireland to produce the ‘Living High Streets’ craft kit which details an inclusive approach to placemaking that serves everyone in a community.