Loneliness Awareness Week

Marmalade Trust founded Loneliness Awareness Week (June 15 – 21) in England in 2017, and it has since grown into a global movement. This is the world’s largest campaign dedicated to sparking conversations about loneliness and inspiring connection.

“Left unaddressed, loneliness and social isolation will continue to cost society billions in terms of healthcare, education, and employment.”
World Health Organization

If the pandemic and subsequent climate-related emergencies have assured Canadians of one certainty, it’s that social connection is not a luxury. It is essential infrastructure for a healthy society.

At the individual level, social connection grounds us in belonging and well-being.
At the community level, it turns neighbours into networks of mutual care.
At the societal level, it functions as preventative, cost-effective infrastructure that reduces pressure on health and emergency systems.

Hey Neighbour Collective (HNC) and its many partner organizations are working to address loneliness and social isolation at its most practical point of intervention: where people live.

We envision a future where multi-unit housing communities across Canada are age-friendly, socially connected, neighbourly, health-promoting, and resilient.

To recognize Loneliness Awareness Week, we’ve compiled a list of HNC and other resources that individuals and organizations can use if they want to join us in working towards this future.

Connection In Action campaign

If you are in the Capital Region on Vancouver Island, join our partner, Building Resilient Neighbourhoods, in a week of free activities aimed at strengthening neighbourly connections.

Seniors Loneliness Awareness Week

Our friends at GenWell are doing their own seniors-specific twist on the week, with ideas and incentives for taking action.

NORC Innovation Centre’s Seniors Empowering Seniors program

This DIY tool was created with one goal in mind – to help older adults form mutual support groups to help each other age in place. The toolkit by our good friends at NIC contains practical ideas and resources to help seniors stay healthy and engaged, have fun, and get connected.

Hey Neighbour Collective’s Practice Guides

These practice guides are written specifically for residents, landlords, housing operators, non-profit organizations, and municipal governments. The guides summarize Hey Neighbour Collective’s key learnings about the vital roles that each of these groups can play in fostering neighbour-to-neighbour connectedness and social resilience in multi-unit housing.

The guides also point to the top tips, tactics, and strategic approaches, and describe the most common benefits that emerge for everyone involved.

Practice guide 1: Supporting residents to become community connectors in multi-unit housing
Practice guide 2: Landlord- and housing operator-led approaches to growing community in multi-unit housing
Practice guide 3: Developing organizational partnerships to build community in multi-unit housing
Practice guide 4: Roles for local government in strengthening social connectedness and resilience activities in multi-unit housing
Learning from the community connectors: Practice guide for implementing resident-led social programming in multi-unit rental housing

Sociable design resources

Building Social Connections toolkit

This toolkit provides evidence-based design strategies, principles, and actions to foster social wellbeing in multi-unit housing. The strategies and principles are designed to be flexible and applicable across the spectrum of multi-unit housing.

Building Social Connections toolkit (Age-Friendly edition)

The Building Social Connections Toolkit Age-Friendly Edition provides additional considerations for aging in the right place. Although the design ideas in this edition focus on homes that support aging in the right place, they also support wellbeing at all life stages.

Case studies for sociable design, Volume 1

This case study report (PDF) includes seven multi-unit residential buildings from national and international contexts as inspiration for sociable design. The buildings utilize varying sociable design elements, and provide a wide range of design and policy approaches.

Case studies for sociable design, Volume 2

The case studies in this report (PDF) showcase a wide range of innovative design and policy approaches, all with a focus on building strong social bonds and mutual support between neighbours. By exploring the design and programming of Moytel Lalem, Vienna House, and Little Mountain Cohousing, this report underscores how cities can meet housing, affordability, and climate goals while also supporting community wellbeing.

Webinars, videos, and podcasts

We offer a range of webinars, videos, and podcasts in which we speak with experts on how to foster social connection. Here, you can also find our Housing That Connects Us Webinar Series where diverse experts share insights on how thoughtful design and programming can help to build community, neighbourly connections and resilience in multi-unit housing.

Stories and articles

These stories and articles showcase the real benefits of delivering social programming in multi-unit housing. Through conversations with residents, caregivers, community organizations, and housing operators, they highlight the positive impact these initiatives have on both residents and landlords. Learn how social programming helps strengthen social connections, foster neighbourly supports, and build more connected, resilient communities.

Reports and publications

Hey Neighbour Collective’s Five-Year Evaluation Report

This report summarizes key learnings from Hey Neighbour Collective’s first five years of operation from 2019 to 2024, including details on the impacts of social programming in multi-unit housing for residents, housing operators and community-based non-profits.

Developing Truly Complete Communities: Metro 2050 Discussion Paper

This discussion paper and set of policy recommendations were created by Hey Neighbour Collective to inform Metro Vancouver’s review of Metro 2040 – our current regional growth strategy – and the drafting of Metro 2050.

Knowledge synthesis: Social Quality of Life in High-Density Built Environments

This is an in-depth research report by HNC’s SFU partners in Urban Studies, Gerontology and Health Sciences, looking at how demographic, socioeconomic, household, individual and personality characteristics intersect with built environment design and housing status, structure, and management to shape social quality of life.