I first met Janice Moth at a gathering at Wild Heart Hill in 2023. She was warm, friendly and engaging and we hit it off immediately. It was only through talking to other people in our wider group that I found out about the amazing work she is doing to combat loneliness in our West Sussex community, and I just had to share it with you.
The Glamour Club events’ mission is to “ignite a burning fire in the hearts and minds of every member of our community to join us on our mission to eradicate loneliness and loneliness caused by social isolation.”
The Glamour Club events have been created especially for those aged 50+, but everyone is welcome. Events are run entirely by volunteers. Each volunteer receives training to make sure they are able to provide the right support to every guest, so the environment is safe and welcoming, particularly for people who are lonely or are socially isolated. Their aim is to ensure each guest feels thoroughly spoilt and cared for – and the volunteers inevitably have a great time themselves.
A great night out in the day
A great way to experience the club is to attend one of their “Great Nights out During the Day” vintage and themed events, which are held on a Saturday from 12pm to 3pm. Guests are served afternoon tea with freshly made sandwiches, a selection of delicious cakes and unlimited tea and coffee.
Live entertainment plays music from the 1940s right up to the noughties in vintage juke box style. Guests can get up and dance or watch others jive, twist, cha-cha and bop their hearts out.
It’s a relaxed and lovely way to make new friends, or just enjoy other people’s company. As a Glamour Club guest said, “It’s a lovely sociable place and a chance to dress up and have a sing-song – brilliant entertainment.”
Something positive to reduce loneliness
Janice said she thought of the idea when she was sitting at Kuala Lumpur Airport in 2016, on her way back from a ten-month trip around Southeast Asia. Reflecting on her fantastic trip while recognising how lonely she had felt at times, she decided to do something positive to reduce loneliness in others when she got back to the UK.
Having worked at a senior level in mental health for the NHS for over ten years, she had a good understanding of how chronic loneliness can impact our mental health.
‘It socks to be lonely’
Janice kicked off her mission with It Socks to be Lonely Sometimes, a company she set up in 2017 as a companion service, aiming to tackle loneliness in Worthing and the surrounding areas. The name came from a story her son Jannick, a contemporary dancer, told her about a piece of art on a wall in Brooklyn.
She explains, “Someone had stuck one lonely, colourful sock on the wall, and as people heard about it, they added their own lost and lonely colourful socks, so the wall became a spectacular piece of colourful and meaningful art.”
Jannick took inspiration from the wall and performed a dance with one sock in a converted biscuit factory famous for inventing the bourbon, garibaldi and digestive biscuits, a London venue, calling the piece “It Socks to be Lonely”.
And thereafter, the Glamour Club was established. Janice was keen for it to be quintessentially English, in a beautiful venue and easily accessible to public transport. She said, “I saw this as a prescription to cure loneliness. It’s a bit of good old-fashioned fun with old-fashioned values – china cups and saucers, traditional sandwiches and cakes, courteous attentive service and dressing up to go out.”
Not just a glamour girl
Aside from running the Glamour Club, Janice is involved in so much more. She continues to be managing director of It Socks to be Lonely Sometimes, where she connects with change-makers in the business community who want to make a positive social impact. She is regularly asked into local companies as a guest speaker to talk about culture, well-being and employee engagement.
Janice is also involved in several projects across the county with a particular focus on improving mental, social, physical and emotional health. A longer-term goal is to expand the Glamour Club concept into neighbouring counties and further afield.
Not content with working her socks off, Janice invests time in her own development, having recently gained a post-graduate degree in Social Innovation and Change Initiatives from Harvard Business School. She is a member of the Institute of Leadership, and Engagement Manager at the Capital Project Trust, a peer-led charity formed to influence and mental health services in West Sussex.
Bringing people together
Most recently, as part of Loneliness Awareness Week, Janice co-hosted a Pier2Peer afternoon tea at the Brighton Pavilion with TogetherCo, Brighton’s Loneliness Charity. Special guests included the TogetherCo ambassador, celebrity vet Dr Marc Abraham OBE, and Jackie O’Quinn, the Mayor of Brighton and Hove.
160 guests were treated to an afternoon of refreshments, music and dancing in a beautifully dressed Pavilion, with the aim of bringing people together across the different communities of Brighton, Hove and Worthing.
April Baker, TogetherCo’s CEO, said: “Our Pier2Peer campaign aims to get people talking about these issues, as well as making connections within their communities.”
Dr Marc Abraham added: “I truly believe that community and connection are key to breaking the stigma around loneliness and social isolation.”
The Glamour Club is sponsored (for the fourth year running) by live-in homecare provider Promedica24, West Sussex. Jo White-Smith, partner at Promedica24, said:
“Loneliness can be as detrimental to our health as smoking and recent research by Age UK found that 1.4 million older people in the UK are often lonely. Events such as the Glamour Club are so important for the community and we are delighted to sponsor and support it as a local business. At every event, there is palpable excitement from our guests, many having attended several times, dressing up and enjoying some good food and great entertainment.
“There is truly nothing like it in Worthing.”
To find out more about the Glamour Club, click here. To buy tickets to an event visit www.theglamourclub.co.uk/buy-a-ticket and if you’re interested in getting involved as a volunteer, email: info@theglamourclub.co.uk
