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Welcome to the Activating Social Connection in Australia project.
The project
The Activating Social Connection project aims to fill gaps in evidence, resources and guidance for local social connection activation. Based on research evidence, our project is committed to developing practical resources and guidance that are useable by community workers, planners and community members. The focus is to understand the complex mechanics of fostering positive social connections and to translate this into resources that help to activate change.
As a collaborative endeavour, the project is part-funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant LP200301335. It is powered by a partnership between Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University, the Australian Red Cross, Neami National, City of Casey, City of Whittlesea, City of Wyndham, and Today Design. The project partners with local people and organisations to support their work to enhance social connectedness within their communities.
Understanding Social Connection
Social connection involves feeling satisfied with your level of close connections, social support, involvement in different groups and activities and sense of fitting into community. Social connection helps avoid loneliness and is good for mental and physical health. Communities where people are connected are more resilient and better able to prepare for, and recover from, adversity. More connected communities have less crime and are safer, than communities where people don’t know or help each other. Individual work and time are necessary for social connection, but it also benefits from having the right community infrastructure.
In the model below you’ll see the moving parts in the evidence-based Social Connection Framework that guides and underpins all of our work. These include the inputs, or what you give to your connections, the outputs or what you get from social connections and the various levels of connection including close connections, social support, diverse groups for identity and feeling part of a community. You can read more about he model in our an evidence-based practical short guide Social Connection 101.
