Enhancing Social Connectedness and Driving Public Health

Our communities are healthier when every person has the support, relationships, and sense of belonging we need to thrive. Social connectedness is not just a feel-good concept: It is a fundamental driver of physical, mental, and emotional health. 

Decades of research confirm it. According to the CDC, when people feel connected to others in their community, they are better protected from chronic illness and disease like heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression, and anxiety; more likely to seek care and eat healthily; and better able to manage life’s challenges. Plus, social connectedness helps people develop a sense of belonging and personal value, contributing to the communities that we’re all a part of.

Yet throughout the Northern Virginia region, many of our community members struggle to form the social bonds they need to thrive. And for many people, feelings of loneliness and isolation were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which drastically impacted health outcomes. The 2023 Surgeon General’s report indicated that the mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day—even greater than the mortality rate associated with obesity and physical inactivity. 

Our Response

At the Northern Virginia Health Foundation, we’re committed to supporting the health and health care needs of the residents of our region, including primary care, oral and dental health, mental health, and specialty care for low-income uninsured or underinsured residents. 

With our latest grant opportunity, we have expanded our commitment by including funding for organizations to support greater social connectedness—our first ever grant focused on this kind of intervention.

Social connection helps to prevent people, especially those in more vulnerable communities, from falling through the gaps that more traditional health services might not cover. That’s why this grant opportunity is an investment in a holistic approach to health in our area. And our grantees are applying it in inspiring ways.

Take Enterprise Community Development, which is utilizing the grant to cultivate a community garden, or the Northern Virginia Veterans’ Association, which will use funding to bring together veterans for social engagement and other activities targeted toward quality of life, or LAZERA Ministries, which is instituting a Community Health Collective. Others are exploring ways to strengthen connections among community members in schools, shelters, libraries, and food pantries: places where people naturally gather, but where intentional efforts can help turn shared space into shared connection.

We’re grateful for these new partnerships, and eager to track the impact that this group of seven grantees has on Northern Virginia’s individuals, families, and entire communities.

The full cohort of social connectedness grantees includes: 

• Enterprise Community Development, Island Walk's Community Garden;

• LAZERA Ministries, Community Health Collective;

• New Virginia Majority Education Fund, Building Tenant and Parent Community in Loudoun and Western Fairfax;

• Northern Virginia Veterans’ Association, Valuing our Vulnerable Veterans - Social Engagement & Quality of Life;

• Tenants and Workers United, Community Connections and Civic Engagement for Long-Term Housing Solutions in Prince William County;

• The Lamb Center, Social Connectedness Club; and

• The Spitfire Club, Building Connection & Belonging Through Reading.