2017 Connect & Engage Report – out now!
November 27, 2017
Are we feeling more isolated than five years ago? Do we know our neighbours well enough to ask for help? Are we participating in community life?
In 2012, our first Connections and Engagement report revealed some challenging findings. We described Metro Vancouver as a hard place to make friends, our neighbourhood connections as cordial, but weak, and a declining level of participation in community life. But we also heard a hunger for social connections, and a desire to engage each other to build a stronger sense of community.
Vancouver Foundation is pleased to release our five-year follow up – the 2017 Connect & Engage Report.
Our new study finds roughly one-quarter of people in Metro Vancouver are still feeling isolated, and that there has been a major decline in people participating in community life in the last five years. It also shows that some groups – including young adults and people in low-income households – experience barriers to participation more acutely, but have clear ideas about how they would like to make new friends, and are open to expanding their circle.
We’ve created a new mini-site within the Vancouver Foundation website to present our findings in more depth. You can download a copy of the full report, and explore other tools and resources to help put this report into action.