Re-engage (formerly Contact the elderly)

Re-engage is the only national charity solely dedicated to tackling loneliness and social isolation among older people.

Tea parties

Supported by a network of volunteers, the charity organises monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups of older people, aged 75 and over, who live alone. Offering a regular and vital friendship link every month.

Each older person is collected from their home by a volunteer driver and taken to a volunteer host’s home for the afternoon. The group is warmly welcomed by a different host each month, but the drivers remain the same which means that over the months and years, acquaintances turn into friends and loneliness is replaced by companionship.

Our tea parties are a real lifeline of friendship for our older guests who have little or no contact with family or friends. They bring people of all ages together, develop fulfilling friendships and support networks, and give everyone involved something to look forward to each month.

There are Re-engage groups in Sale, Timperley, Wythenshawe, Chorlton and Lymm.

Call companions

Would you like a regular friendly chat over the phone with your very own call companion?

Call companions is available to anyone aged 75 and over who’d benefit from a regular chat over the phone with a friendly volunteer.

"Getting a call companion is the best and most valuable thing I've ever done.”

The award-winning rainbow call companions

Are you lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or otherwise part of the LGBT+ community? Are you aged 75 or over? Would you like a regular friendly chat over the phone with your very own call companion?

Rainbow call companions is an award-winning free service for older LGBT+ people who are lonely, isolated or in need of companionship and feel they’d enjoy a friendly phone call every week or two with a volunteer who also identifies as LGBT+.