Design for connection from the start.
Neighborship is a social health resource for Central Pennsylvania. It offers research, insight, and practical ideas for anyone building the places and programs where people live, work, and gather.
Social health is the quality of our relationships, our sense of belonging, and our ability to connect with, contribute to, and rely on others. Like physical and mental health, it is an essential part of our wellbeing. But unlike many other things we do for our health, we can’t build it alone. Social health requires other people, interaction, and reciprocity.
The consequences of poor social health do not stop with the individual. Social disconnection is linked to workplace burnout and absenteeism, higher healthcare use, lower productivity, and reduced community participation. The costs show up in underused programs and spaces, and initiatives that never quite become part of people’s lives.
And yet connection is still too often treated as something that will “just happen”.
Creating opportunities for people to be together is not the same as creating the conditions for meaningful relationships to form. That gap between giving people places to gather intentionally helping connection grow shows up in familiar ways: initial curiosity, followed by declining participation, underused spaces, programs that fade out, and good ideas that never quite become part of people’s lives.
Neighborship helps organizations and communities strengthen social health on purpose by making connection something we plan for, design around, and measure from the start.
Why Social Health
Neighborship exists to make social health something we plan for, not hope for.
Right now, hoping isn't working, and the numbers show it:
By the numbers
For most Americans, time with people they care about is occasional, not routine.
4 in 10 Americans report moderate to severe loneliness.
1 in 5 get together with people they care about only a few times a year or less.
70% feel they belong in their neighborhood, but only half trust their neighbors.
Source: Social Connection in America™ 2026, RAND and The Connection Institute
Asking the right questions changes everything
Asking the right question from the start changes everything.
Most organizations are not aware of the connection between poor social health and declining participation, burnout, and strained community life. Good questions to ask are:
Who participates, and who quietly drifts away?
Where do people get stuck?
Where do our systems create friction instead of trust?
Do our policies support the community ties people rely on?
The answers reshape design, investment, programs, and the resilience of the communities we serve.
Explore the research behind this work → Research
Who is this for?
If you plan, fund, design, or run the places and programs where people connect, this is for you.
That includes:
Aging services and senior centers
Employers and HR teams
HOAs and neighborhood associations
Municipalities and planners
Developers and property managers
Funders and foundations
Nonprofits, faith communities
And ….
Start Here
The Research
Curated research on connection, participation, and community design, including Pennsylvania and Central PA data that isn't gathered in one place anywhere else.
The Practice of Us
Essays on the systems, spaces, and stories that shape human connection. Some are grounded in research; others are more personal.
Working Together
Neighborship works directly with organizations to put research into practice. That can mean needs assessments that go beyond attendance numbers, program design that considers belonging from the start, or facilitation that helps teams ask better questions.
Whether you're planning something new or strengthening something already underway, a conversation is a good first step.
When you want to go further
Current work
Neighborship is partnering with an aging services organization in Central Pennsylvania on a community needs assessment and intergenerational program design, aligned with the state's Aging Our Way, PA plan.
The work starts with understanding what is actually happening in the community: what's already offered, where the gaps are, which partners should be involved, and what funding could support it.
Working on something similar?