Symposium recap & summer reading

Dear ,

With summer now upon us, we’re reaching out with a quick burst of updates and info. We’re looking forward to powering down a bit soon and we hope you are too.

We recently wrapped up our two-day symposium, Living Together: Connecting housing, well-being and resilience. It brought together a broad array of people concerned about loneliness and social isolation: housing professionals, municipal planners, public health professionals, architects, non-profits, funders, emergency management professionals, academics and students. 

We also published an evidence backgrounder on the importance of neighbour-based social connectedness for health. And we're happy to be sharing important work from our colleagues at Happy Cities about how to build happier homes.

You won’t hear from us again until September, but before we go into summer mode we wanted to add a few things to your viewing and reading list.

As always, we’d love to know about your own work and interests. If you’re doing related work, please reach out!

Best wishes, stay cool, and be well this summer,

Hey Neighbour Collective

Living Together Symposium: Recordings now available

On June 7th and 8th, HNC co-hosted the Living Together Symposium alongside colleagues at Happy Cities, SFU Urban Studies and SFU Public Square. If you missed the symposium or would like to remember your favourite moments, we're happy to share that recordings from both days are now live.

Day one videos

Featuring:

• Tackling loneliness: Lessons from near and far
• FLUID Sociability tool: Demonstration and panel discussion
• Towards Metro 2050: Equity report and mapping tools

Day two videos

Featuring:

• Michael Eliason, Larch Lab
• Kent Patenaude & Hugh Forster, Lu'uma Development
• John Wall, Public Architecture

Evidence backgrounder: How social connectedness between neighbours supports health and well-being

Over the coming months, we'll be debuting a series of research backgrounders to support the work of the Collective. This first one, by SFU Health Sciences PhD Candidate Meridith Sones, details how social connectedness between neighbours supports health and well-being.

Learning from community housing movements: Six principles for building happier homes

Feeling connected to our communities, neighbours, and friends is fundamental to human wellbeing. When we design buildings, sometimes we forget this.

Enhancing social connections through creative communication

Former HNC research assistant Lainey Martin discusses the Photovoice project and how visual media has the power to enhance both social connectivity and research insights.

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