Here's to 2024!

As the year comes to an end it’s a great time to celebrate our shared efforts to increase social connectedness around the world and look forward to exciting plans for the new year.

While there is still much to be done to raise awareness and drive meaningful action, we’ve seen substantial steps forward in the right direction.? It’s impossible to showcase all the remarkable efforts being made, but here, as they say, are some of the highlights from our members and other global organisations that have inspired us at GILC.

GILC Member GenWell, reminded us to Talk to Strangers

GenWell’s mission is to educate, empower, and catalyse people in Canada about the importance of face-to-face social connections. During the week of November 18-24, they ran Talk to a Stranger Week. Their objective? To get people talking to strangers. Why? Talking to strangers can improve our wellbeing and help us become more trusting. Many of us also forget that all of our friends were once strangers. GenWell partnered with Good Earth Coffeehouse to remind us all that saying hello to a stranger is good for us and can help us feel more connected. As poet, W.B. Yeats told us, “A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.” Next year, who knows, maybe Talking to Strangers will go global too.

You can read more about this incredible campaign:?

https://www.talktoastrangerweek.org/about?

GILC Member, The Foundation for Social Connection, celebrated 1 year of their Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities

Over a year ago, the Foundation for Social Connection (USA) launched its Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities. The guide was developed following extensive conversations with local leaders and in-depth research. It is designed to help local change makers and leaders develop tailored social connection strategies for their community and leverages evidence-based strategies and resources. Over the past year, they’ve been presenting the action guide to policymakers, business leaders, and community-based organisations as well as working closely with five pilot communities across the country. In October this year, they hosted a webinar to share more on their action guide, with two of the pilot communities sharing the innovative approaches they’ve taken to creating stronger connections in their communities.

You can check out more on the guide at the link below, and if you like it, please share within your networks, to help build more collaborations and action:?

https://action4connection.org/?

GILC Member, Ending Loneliness Together, presented at the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament Inquiry into the prevalence, causes, and impact of loneliness

In Australia, Professor Michelle Lim, Deputy Chair of GILC’s International Scientific Board and CEO of Ending Loneliness Together, spoke to the NSW Parliament about the opportunity for the state government to take effective action to reduce the impact of loneliness by establishing a state-wide strategy connecting all sectors, scientific experts, and those with lived experiences. She also highlighted the need for a prevention approach through the implementation of population wide strategies that can prevent the onset of persistent loneliness alongside strategies that can ensure that there is focus on vulnerable communities. This conversation builds on Ending Loneliness Together’s State of the Nation 2023 report and their follow up study: Why We Feel Lonely. Their reports found that one-third of Australians feel lonely some or all of the time, which is up from one in four people feeling lonely prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can read more on their contribution to the inquiry here:

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/submissions/88102/0055%20Ending%20Loneliness%20Together.pdf?

GILC Member, Friendship Bench, launched their global website?

Friendship Bench provides sustainable community-based psychological interventions that are evidence based, accessible, and scalable. Their innovative solution to the challenges faced by individuals regarding access to mental health support and creating a sense of community connection and belonging was to train grandmothers to provide talk therapy. This year alone, Friendship Bench Zimbabwe shared that their grandmothers have been able to reach 250 000 individuals. This year also saw even more recognition for the incredible story behind Friendship Bench. The Friendship Bench Documentary was screened during October in Berlin, at the DOCUMENTALE Film Festival and the intervention has now been replicated in 10 countries. The new Friendship Bench website serves as a hub for highlighting the international growth of Friendship Bench, their scale strategy - Friendship Bench In A Box DIY toolkit, as well as sharing stories from across the globe.

You can check out their website here:?

https://www.friendshipbench.org/?utm_campaign=a5a20c2f-655e-43ea-bb93-cab446ef1acb&utm_source=so&utm_medium=lp?

Loneliness Awareness Week received great traction

One of our key goals in GILC is to raise awareness of the impact of loneliness and weak social connections and the need for action. In collaboration with the Marmalade Trust (UK), we were pleased to help Loneliness Awareness Week go global once again. This year the campaign was supported by our members in Australia (Ending Loneliness Together), Canada (GenWell), and the USA (Foundation for Social Connection). Meanwhile, Japan launched a whole month of countermeasures to address loneliness and isolation, with input from our GILC member Ibashochat. Campaigns like this are vital in getting people talking about loneliness, thinking about social connection, and changing their behaviour.? In 2025 we hope to do even more to help our members get on board and raise awareness about the power of social connection and inspire action for thriving communities everywhere.

To read more about where it all started: https://www.marmaladetrust.org/law?

The WHO Commission on Social Connection kicked off

In 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a new Commission on Social Connection, which is chaired by Dr. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States, and Chido Mpemba, Special Envoy on Youth to the African Union Chairperson & Commission. The WHO commission will run from 2024 to 2026 and will consider the role social connection plays in enhancing well-being. Their work aims to drive the recognition of social connection as a health priority. Moreover, they have highlighted the need to provide clear evidence to leaders and practitioners about the best ways to improve social connection.

In March 2024, The WHO Technical Advisory Group on Social Connection (TAG-SC) was established. This group will advise WHO as it strengthens its efforts to promote social connection for better health and well-being. Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Michelle Lim, who lead GILC’s International Scientific Board, are both members of the TAG-SC.?

Earlier this year, the governments of Chile and the United States of America, with the support of the governments of Sweden and Morocco – all countries represented on the WHO Commission on Social Connection – publicly announced their intent to pursue a first-ever World Health Assembly resolution on social connection. A proposal for this resolution has been accepted to be presented to the WHO Executive Board in January 2025.?

The US Surgeon General shared an inspiring guide to promote social connections

The Surgeon General’s guide, Recipes for Connection: Inspiring Social Connection One Bite at a Time, offers a variety of suggestions on ways we can explore to build stronger connections. The booklet offers ideas of ways to address loneliness and build community around food. The guide is a refreshing read, filled with wonderful stories of human connection and community-building over food. The stories range from simple muffin sharing at a bus stop to community initiatives developed to feed community members in need. If you are looking for some inspiration for ideas or stories of connection to warm your heart, you can take a look at the guide here:?

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/recipes-for-connection.pdf?

But that’s not all…

Alongside these events and activities, our members, CEO, steering committees, and Board Directors have been leading the charge for better policy and practice in social health, including the world’s first public health guidelines for social connection, developed in Canada by GenWell and the Canadian Alliance for Social Connection and Health.

We’re glad you’ve made it this far (in the newsletter and the year). We love to hear about all of the work happening in the social connection and loneliness space so if you have any other stories you’d like us to share with our community, please feel free to reach out to Aya at [email protected].?

From all of us at GILC, we wish you a magical end of year season. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay connected.