Our mental and physical health is deeply impacted by the quality of our relationships, an fact brought painfully to the fore in the locked-down months of the pandemic.  A large and growing number of studies[1] have revealed startling negative health outcomes for individuals who lack social connection:

• Equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day or having an alcohol use disorder
• Twice as harmful to physical and mental health as obesity
• Linked to depression, poor sleep quality, accelerated cognitive decline and impaired immunity
• Increased risk of stroke and coronary heart disease
• Direct and significant impact on longevity

As a defined social determinant of health, social connectedness has many facets at both individual and community levels:

• breadth and depth of relationships
• emotional and instrumental support from others
• opportunities to contribute to the well-being of others and to the community
• opportunities to feel valued by other people and by the community at large
• qualities of, and challenges to, connection among those who are very alike versus among those who are different from one another
• level of trust among individuals and across a community
• sense of community belonging

The WELLO Community Health and Well-being Survey 2021 identified Social Relationships as the lowest-scoring wellness domain for Brown County residents, with 10% of respondents reporting being “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with personal relationships and support they got from friends.  The Brown County Area LIFE Study (2021) revealed that only 67% of respondents rated Brown County as “good” or “excellent” for “living together as neighbors”.

Strategies to improve social connectedness and belonging across Brown County can be achieved through many vehicles, among them individual choices, neighborly connections, voluntary and civic association membership development, connection-promoting local government policies and practices, nonprofit organization programming, and for-profit sector employee- or community-facing activities.

For more information or to explore opportunities to connect with this work, contact strategy lead Julie Filapek, Neighborhood Partners Program Manager at NeighborWorks Green Bay at julief@nwgreenbay.org or 920-217-8744.