Announcement

Contact the Elderly (now Re-engage) are delighted to announce that Meryl Davies will be joining the charity as its new Chief Executive Officer on May 8th.

Meryl joins the charity having held roles in various non-profit organisations, most recently as CEO of Habitat for Humanity Great Britain, overseeing work in the UK and overseas with programmes that improve housing and sanitation while working with impressive and energetic volunteers.

Founded in 1965, Contact the Elderly (now Re-engage) is the only national charity solely dedicated to relieving the acute loneliness and social isolation of older people who live alone through regular face-to-face contact. The Contact the Elderly model is simple yet very effective: free, monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups of older people and volunteers within their community - which bring all ages together, develop fulfilling friendships and support networks, and give everyone something to look forward to.

With a volunteer network of over 11,000, the charity provides a regular social connection to more than 6,200 older people every month through 810 tea party groups across the UK.

Contact the Elderly Chair of Trustees, Christian Grobel, said:

“I am delighted that Meryl Davies is joining us as Chief Executive and am looking forward to working with her. She joins the charity at an exciting time as Contact the Elderly has grown its income, presence and service delivery. This is a testament to the great support our work receives from our network, corporate organisations and the general public. However there remains the challenge of an increasingly ageing society and the growing need for our service to reach ever more communities across the UK. Meryl’s leadership and experience in fundraising, volunteering and the use of digital to improve how we work will be invaluable in helping continue to reach the most vulnerable in our society
 
“Meryl follows two outstanding recent leaders of the charity, Mary Rance and Cliff Rich, and we are very grateful to Mary and Cliff for all they have done over the last few years. We are particularly delighted that Cliff will continue his work at the charity as Deputy Chief Executive and wish to express, on behalf of all the Trustees, our thanks to him and the leadership team for stepping up so well in the past year.”

New Chief Executive Officer, Meryl Davies, added:

“It is an immense privilege to have been asked to lead Contact the Elderly into its next phase of development and growth. Contact the Elderly’s work, in raising awareness of social isolation and of combating loneliness in older people, is essential. I am very much looking forward to working with the board, the team, and the volunteers as we do even more to make life better for older generations which deserve our keen attention and our great respect.”

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Note - Contact the Elderly is now Re-engage