Development Note #11
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The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory in 2023 noting that loneliness affects about 33% of American adults. However, a Pew Research survey showed that 57% of Americans participate in at least one group. How can people be lonely if so many people are socially active? The question is whether the socializing we do is sufficient to ease our collective sense of isolation.
Perhaps “loneliness” isn’t even the best description of the core problem. One theory suggests that beneath the feeling of loneliness can lie something deeper: a belief that we don’t truly belong. If that’s the case, the focus should shift from “reducing loneliness” to cultivating authentic relationships that help people feel valued, welcomed, and included.
What is belonging?
Stanford psychologist Geoffrey Cohen explores this question in Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides (2022). He writes that belonging may seem vague, but it describes a clear experience: not simply being around others, but having the feeling of being a valued part of a group—whether a book club, a PTA, or a pickleball team. It’s the opposite of feeling alone. Cohen asks, “How do we create a truly inclusive society where all feel they belong?”
It’s a pressing question. Many initiatives today, such as the Ad Council’s Belonging Begins With Us campaign, aim to strengthen connection and community. Community development organizations are also taking on social isolation and loneliness. But when their efforts rely primarily on online platforms—Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or X—their messages risk being lost in a sea of competing media.
Some organizations are choosing a different path: emphasizing personal communication and in-person interaction. The Sierra Club, for example, states, “By treating each person touched by our organization with compassion and kindness, we will create a community that draws people in and invites them to stay.” Similarly, a Harvard Business Review article, Turn Your Customers into Your Community, argues that “true communities are more than groups of customers—they are groups of people who keep coming together over what they care about.” This mindset overturns a longstanding advertising tradition. Instead of merely simulating personal connection, organizations are acknowledging the need to foster genuine, human relationships.
Unified Goal
Marketing a sense of closeness is not the same as showing up in person. Belonging grows through real encounters with people who know you. For organizations seeking not only to reach people but to connect with them emotionally, the personal connections of community engagement are becoming the meaningful alternative to media-saturated “connection.”
Promoting the function of human connections is not the same as communicating the idea of social interaction. Genuine social interaction is also a multi-faceted thing that can require different approaches from organizations with unique perspectives—in order to reach out to many different kinds of people. Different organizations working together can learn from one another best practices in outreach: not to find a unified message, but to better succeed in achieving their goals.
Whether through traditional outreach or community-based interaction, organizations—nonprofits and for-profits alike—face a familiar challenge: how to connect at scale in a crowded communication environment. One promising strategy is group-to-group collaboration. Large organizations with established local affiliates can form powerful networks for outreach and engagement. And because local groups meet face-to-face, they can bridge personal and institutional relationships and reach people far more effectively.
National umbrella organizations with local groups already know how this works. Consider:
- Transition Network, with nearly one thousand affiliated groups worldwide
- National 4-H Council, the largest youth-development organization in the U.S., with thousands of local affiliates
- Public Library Association, representing nearly 9,000 local libraries
These organizations possess significant assets—expert staff, funding, infrastructure, and trusted reputations—that amplify their reach. Now imagine connecting several such organizations into a collaborative network. The result could be a national framework capable of both broad communication and local, person-to-person engagement.
What can such a network achieve?
To illustrate this, suppose the Transition Network, 4-H Council, and Public Library Association formed a coalition. Their shared outreach would naturally reflect their core missions—resilience, competence and caring, and community effectiveness—each essential to sustainable community development. Collaboration would multiply not only the number of people reached, but also the credibility and resonance of their message.
In terms of outreach, the next practical step would be to form a collaborative workgroup composed of representatives from multiple large organizations, each contributing distinct expertise:
- The Transition Network offers sustainability knowledge and systems thinking.
- The 4-H Council brings experience mobilizing young people.
- The Public Library Association provides community gathering spaces and staff skilled in organizing local programming.
Such a collaboration would not be simple—each organization faces its own commitments, budgets, and priorities. But the potential impact is immense. A coordinated network of well-established groups could strengthen real connection, linking individuals and communities through trust, belonging, and shared purpose.
Strong, resilient communities require more than information—they require relationships. By collaborating across networks and sectors, we can begin to rebuild the sense of belonging that makes a community not just livable, but whole.