Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has declared that social isolation has reached crisis levels in our nation. 58% of adults report feeling lonely and only 39% said that they felt very connected to others. It’s worse among young adults - 79% of 18–24-year-olds report feeling lonely, a rate that has increased every year between 1976 and 2019. But it is not hopeless.
Faith leaders and communities, as uniquely powerful hubs of connection and belonging, have increasingly stepped up to combat this epidemic, utilizing their deep-rooted networks to offer support and foster relationships. In fact, faith communities might be one of our most underutilized resources to combat this crisis.
innoFaith has teamed up with Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute for this latest edition of Weave’s Let’s Talk series, an interactive conversation on Zoom where experienced practitioners who are weaving their communities together share practical advice that we can use to foster belonging in our own communities.
During the call, we’ll explore innovative ways in which faith communities can respond to this crisis particularly to support diverse groups such as seniors, young people, and more.
The speakers are:
Dr. Sherry Molock, HAVEN Connect - Is implementing a project that leverages the community connections of Black churches to provide mental health support to vulnerable Black youth.
Sepi Djavaheri, UJA’s Isolation-to-Connection: Leads an initiative that brings together hundreds of isolated and lonely elderly folks from all faiths at Jewish Community Centers (JCC) in New York, by leveraging the relationships and trust built by community and faith leaders.
Danielle Goldstone, innoFaith - moderator : leads multi-faith network and platform for social innovation, inspiring people of faith to innovate and collaborate for social change.
Gabriel Plata, Weave: The Social Fabric Project - moderator : Writes and shares stories of folks across America who are weaving their communities together and restoring social trust.