COMMUNITY
After eighteen months of constant isolation due to the COVID lockdowns, an English couple in their 30s decided to launch Talk the Walk, which aims to bring people together and get them to know each other, all while exploring London on foot. Jake Williams and Charlotte Sinclair say their number one mission is to have fun — even if only a few people show up. Well, that’s what they expected when they began back in September on Meetup.
Suddenly they were getting hundreds of people RSVPing with enthusiasm. “Our services are really in demand,” Williams told Good News Network. There are now nearly 2,000 members in their Meetup community and followers on their Facebook page.
Around 200 to 300 people of various ages have been regularly attending each event, which opens with the playing of icebreaker games; the games are designed to be easy for introverts, too, with “fun” questions to break any nervousness.
So far, Talk the Walk has chosen landmarks to visit, such as Hampstead Heath, King’s Cross and the Regent’s Canal.
“Our focus is to end loneliness and to bring communities back together,” Williams wrote via email. And as a result, the couple say they’ve seen older people chatting with younger people, and people becoming friends — so much so, that ‘strangers’ are now meeting on their own after becoming acquainted.
Talk the Walk’s last event was October 23, “but we’ll be back once it starts to warm up again,” Williams and Sinclair say.
TOP Jake Williams (left) and Charlotte Sinclair (right) in front of a Talk the Walk gathering
MIDDLE King’s Cross walk
BOTTOM Regent’s Canal walk
PHOTO Talk the Walk/Alexandru Ciobotaru