RSA US Director Alexa Clay sits down with Chamber of Connection Founder and serial social entrepreneur Aaron Hurst FRSA to discuss his latest venture and the challenge of connection facing Americans today.
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I first moved with my family to Seattle from Brooklyn ten years ago. When I moved I heard of what many know as the “Seattle Freeze” or the difficulty of relationship building in a city made up of nearly 70% transplants. Unfortunately, data confirms Seattle’s social challenge. Nearly half of Seattleites say they are not interested in interacting with people they don’t know, and only 14% are considered highly sociable.These chilling figures put Seattle among the most socially isolated cities in the U.S.
The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has declared that loneliness is an epidemic, with one in two Americans experiencing measurable loneliness and only 32% trusting others — a steep decline from 50% in the 1970s. It is as harmful to physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Chronic loneliness also has profound social consequences. It makes us less empathetic to the experiences of others. It impacts economic mobility as we have fewer friends across ethnic and economic boundaries. It even discourages us from supporting local businesses and volunteering for local nonprofits. Chronic loneliness ultimately amounts to a $406 billion economic burden on the United States.
Social isolation is a grave and invisible threat to our democracy, making us more polarized and undermining our collective ability to tackle complex social issues, from climate change to affordable housing. In this precarious climate, rebuilding social connection and trust building has become one of the most pressing challenges of our times.
To tackle this crisis, newcomers, first in Seattle, and eventually every other city in the country, are an ideal starting point. Research indicates that periods of transition or “fresh starts” are optimal for forming friendships, making friends, volunteering and engaging with diverse groups. This is when people are motivated to build connections and explore new activities. What if we could tap into this energy in ways that might foster deep and lasting connections? In our model, newcomers, or those in life transition, are trained on how to live a more socially connected life, and build the community needed to feel at home.
In five years we want to have a Chamber of Connection in every U.S. city where there is a Chamber of Commerce. In the same way that businesses onboard new hires we want to create an onboarding and community building program for new residents. The Chamber of Connection invites, and then guides, participants through a transformational year-long journey through the city, beginning with a welcome day cohort, then facilitating connections within neighborhoods, and amongst shared interests activities led by community builders. The Chamber of Connection centers its learning in its unique research-based “Six Points of Connection” framework, designed to help anyone strengthen their social bonds – from establishing an emergency neighborhood contact to cultivating a “third place” to hang out and scheduling weekly one-on-one social interactions. We can reverse the troubling decline of social connection and trust across our nation. The Chamber of Connection is taking action, city by city, to help create communities where connections not only exist but thrive.
We can reverse the troubling decline of social connection and trust across our nation.
The RSA Fellowship at its core is about connecting people around world changing ideas. Through the network of the RSA, I’ve been able to connect with others working to help mainstream a movement for social connection. At a level of core support, RSA US has also helped us, acting as a fiscal sponsor before we had nonprofit status, advising us on aspects of institution building (including membership development, volunteer strategy and engagement, board composition, and strategic advisory support). RSA US has also helped put us on the map with funders looking to invest in civic infrastructure building. Finally, a core challenge we have is scaling to different U.S. cities. The RSA is supporting us with connections in places where Fellowship hubs and RSA partners can help us to scale. There is even interest in exploring and exporting the Chamber of Connection model to the UK.
The US Chamber of Connection is a leading civic institution dedicated to building and sustaining the core infrastructure needed to address the greatest issue facing society today – our lack of connection. RSA US is partnering with The Chamber of Connection to support and incubate the organization as it works to scale across U.S. cities.
Learn more: https://www.chamberofconnection.org/about
RSA Fellows are invited to become members of the Chamber of Connection and receive 50% off membership (using code”RSAFellow“), plus a 7-day free trial to explore before committing.
Do you want to learn more about our Social Connections intervention in the U.S.? Get in touch with our team to find out more. Email them today at general.us@thersa.org. Or you can sign up to our Social Connections newsletter.
Our social connections work will oversee a step-change in encouraging approaches and practices that value and commit to stewarding social capital.
