An interview with Charito Gailling
Charito explains the link between social connectedness and positive health outcomes.
We see housing as critical infrastructure for “multi-solving” in the midst of multiple overlapping crises, like climate change, rising social isolation and loneliness, and increasing unaffordability.
In this short interview, Charito Gailling, Project Manager for Healthy Built Environments at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, emphasizes exactly that.
“Social connectedness is health. There’s so much evidence and research showing how essential social connection is to being healthy. It supports positive health outcomes and acts as a protective factor during climate events and other emergencies.”
Background
This interview is part of a collection of interviews emerging from Living Together 2025: Connecting housing, social health, and resilience.
Living Together 2025 was a two-day ‘collective action’ symposium that convened over 200 housing experts, public health professionals, municipal planners, architects, place-based community organizations, emergency management professionals, senior government policymakers, academics, and students.
We are deeply grateful to the many attendees who took the time to share their reflections and insights in brief interviews. From student research assistants to housing operators, policymakers, and public health practitioners, these voices capture the rich diversity present at the symposium.
