Building Social Connection and Belonging Around the World

The Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness works with global partners to build social connectedness within and between communities to overcome social isolation. We strive to understand and build belonging through research, programming, partnerships and advocacy, bringing together diverse scholars, students, advocates, and people with lived experiences.

We invite you to join us in this movement of building a society where everyone is valued, seen, and heard, and where everyone is supported in realizing their inherent right to belong.

Learn more about us

Introducing the Belonging Forum

We’re joining with others to deepen our understanding of belonging around the world. Check out the results of the Belonging Forum’s first major survey on the state of belonging in the UK.

Visit the Belonging Forum

Get ready to meet our Social Connectedness Fellows

Working with partners around the globe, we’re selecting our 2024 cohort of summer research Fellows to do groundbreaking work on social isolation and belonging. Stay tuned!

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Hopes, Homes, and Havens: Stories of seeking asylum and refuge

Hopes, Homes, and Havens – an interactive map of newcomers’ journeys – centres the voices and experiences of refugee claimants and people seeking asylum.

View Hopes, Homes, and Havens

Activist and educator Kim Samuel calls for an end to social isolation and the Right to Belong in her book

In her book, On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation, Kim Samuel, our Founder and Chief Belonging Officer takes aim at the growing crisis of isolation, exclusion and disconnection.

The new psychology of Belonging

Our Founder and Chief Belonging Officer Kim Samuel explores how belonging is a right. She looks to an essential teaching that she received from Nelson Mandela.

Read the article

The Social Connectedness Fellowship: A case for researching belonging

Program Manager Olivia Smith-Rodrigues shares her insights into the Social Connectedness Fellowship program and its innovative approach.

Read Olivia’s blog

Vulnerable doesn’t mean less than: Giving vulnerable populations the Same Human Standard

Social Connectedness Fellow Esther Kim explores how people referred to as ‘vulnerable’ are left out when it comes to social connectedness, and what can be done to build belonging.

Read Esther’s blog