Our Vision
Thriving Relationships for a Better Society
Good relationships are at the heart of everything worthwhile so we work with a wide range of leaders and policy makers to improve and champion relationships for a thriving society.
We’ve conducted research, written books, resources, lobbied governments and incubated many initiatives. We’re a charity and social enterprise, offering research, insight and strategic planning to those with whom we wor
“ People who are more isolated than they want to be from others – people who are socially excluded – find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely.”
Robert WaldingerDirector of the Harvard Study of Adult Development
Why Relationships?
Countless studies show that good, close relationships are vital for physical and mental health. Well-connected people live longer and have more productive lives than those who are socially isolated; they are happier, participate more in their communities and need less support from social and health services. Crucially, these people can overcome disadvantage and excel.
Relationships are affected, however, by many factors including social structures and policy.
That is why The Relationships Foundation was set up in 1994, to develop relational thinking and bring insight to workplaces and policy makers across the world, to help strengthen and prioritise relationships.
Assessing Relationships
All of our work and research is based, and builds, on measuring the quality of relationships in any given situation, then supporting their sustainable improvement. Understanding the relational health of any system or group of people is the first step to improvement and our Relational Proximity Framework surveys are one way we can map and reveal the true relational strengths and weaknesses of an organisation. Through other quantitative and qualitative studies we have also built up a wealth of insight enabling us to model impacts and share strategies.
Becoming a relational organisation can involve rethinking purpose, changing culture and reforming structures - and the rewards are great for the individual, workplace and society.