Case Study: Age UK achieves scalable telephone befriending—reaching 10,000 calls/week to fight loneliness with Twilio

Age UK fights loneliness among older people with a telephone befriending service

Age UK, a London-based charity, runs Call in Time, a weekly telephone befriending service for older people facing chronic loneliness. Faced with nearly 1.2 million lonely older adults in the UK and a manual call system that plateaued at 3,500 calls per month, Age UK needed a more scalable way to vet volunteers and increase call volume without adding staff overhead.

Working with Reason Digital and using Twilio and serverless AWS architecture, Age UK launched a web app that automates volunteer screening, matches callers by interest, and connects calls without sharing phone numbers—streamlining sign-up and improving safety. The system automates scheduling and call orchestration (calls volunteers, then members, records calls for safeguarding) and rapidly scaled volunteer recruitment (2,500 volunteers in weeks); Age UK is now targeting 10,000 calls per week and has received multiple awards for the service.

Age UK

Richard Holland

Solutions Architect