Kim Samuel, Founder, Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness; Chair and President, Samuel Family Foundation; Professor of Practice, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University
Kim Samuel is a pioneer in the field of social connectedness and its significance to inclusive policy and program development on a global scale. She advocates for community-based approaches to economic and social development.
Her work focusing on social isolation as a critical experiential and measurable component of multidimensional poverty and other critical issues underscores the importance of social connectedness to human dignity and human rights struggles globally. Kim is partnering with communities around the world, from First Nations in Canada to local organizations that support children and caregivers in southern Africa, to develop culturally relevant models and programs to overcome isolation.
Kim is the Founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness (SCSC), a non-profit organization that works to catalyze innovative strategies to build connectedness within and between communities.
Kim is a Professor of Practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID) at McGill University. In 2016, Kim designed and delivered the first academic course in the emerging field of social connectedness and taught another cohort in 2017.
In 2014 and 2016, Kim convened the Global Symposium on Overcoming Isolation and Deepening Social Connectedness, bringing together over 100 thought leaders to collaborate and build pathways to belonging. The next Global Symposium will take place in October 2019.
In 2017, she launched the Social Connectedness Fellowship program, which offers recent graduates the opportunity to carry out research related to social isolation and connectedness.
Kim has a forthcoming book on social isolation and belonging, in which she raises awareness about the role of social isolation in many of the world’s most pressing issues. The book further explores how individuals, communities, governments and organizations can build for belonging in our society.
Articles by Kim Samuel
- 2018
- Making our Metrics Count
- Social Inclusion and Environmental Sustainability: We Stand or Sink Together
- Why We Need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Sexual Violence
- Preventing Homelessness Goes Beyond Affordable Housing
- 2017
- After earthquakes and hurricanes, the question is: What do we value?
- #MeToo Should Be Everyone’s Issue
- We Shouldn’t Need to be “Successful” to Belong
- Creating More Caring University Classrooms
- Reimagining Rehabilitation: “A Treasure in the Heart of Every Man”
- The Fire This Time
- ‘One Of Us’ Has To Be All Of Us
- A Holistic Systems Approach To Mental Health On Campus
- To Reach Peace, We Must Teach Peace
- The Caring Classroom: Promoting Community-Centered Learning on Campus
- International Women’s Day 2017: Women Serve, Women Solve, Women Lead
- Conflict and Connectedness in the Middle East
- A Warning From The Past: What The MS St Louis Tells Us About Today’s Refugee Crisis
- How to Build Social Connectedness? Get Creative
- Where Is the Love? Building Belonging in an Age of Divisiveness
- 2016
- Breaking Bread and Building Connection
- Male Isolation: Recognizing the Invisible Men in our Midst
- From Common Core To Common Care: Helping School Communities Thrive
- ‘A New ‘3 R’s’ for Back to School: Respect, Recognition, and Reciprocity
- Institutionalized and Isolated: How Serbia is Failing Children with Disabilities
- Confronting Attawapiskat’s PTSD: The Painful Trauma of Spiritual Disconnection
- Moving from #BringBackOurGirls to #ValueOurGirls
- Using Social Connectedness to Unlock Sustainable Development
- The Urban Condition is the Human Condition
- Climate, Community, Collaboration, Connection: Why Measuring Environmental Performance Matters
- Finding the Wisdom, Courage, and Compassion to See That The Other Is Us
- 2015
- Social Creatures: How Animals Can Help us to Connect, Heal, and Love
- Celebrate Global Dignity Day With Empathy, Inclusion and Action
- Promoting Inclusion in an Aging World
- The Beautiful Game and the Goal of Belonging
- Showing Up Sooner: A Lesson for Caregivers
- Combating Caregiver Isolation: Respect, Recognition and Reciprocity
- Building for Belonging
- Living Long Shouldn’t Mean Living Lonely
- Fighting Isolation Via Paintbrush, Page, Song and Stage
- Let’s Resolve to Combat Social Isolation in 2015
- 2014
- The Youngest Victims: Combating the Social Isolation of Ebola Orphans
- Social Isolation and Its Relationship to Multidimensional Poverty
- Overcoming Social Isolation – Overview Video
- Opening Remarks at Symposium on Overcoming Isolation and Building Social Connectedness
- Shame, Humiliation and Social Isolation: Missing Dimensions of Poverty and Suffering Analysis
- Social Isolation: A Conceptual and Measurement Proposal
- 2013 and Earlier
- Intellectual Disabilities, Global Poverty and Isolation
- Isolation, Generosity, Giving, and Receiving
