There are things that can be done to address loneliness and social isolation.
This resource brings together the policy ideas, from Canada and from around the world, that governments, communities, schools, workplaces, and care systems can act on. It is a working library for the people doing that work: a place to find the levers, the precedents, and the next steps.
Loneliness and social isolation are shaped by public conditions: housing, transit, income, care, and the design of the places we live. They can be addressed by changing those things, and people, in many countries, already are. This resource gathers what they have done, and what could be done here.
Where the work happens.
The policies in this resource span several policy domains, the broad areas where governments and communities can act. Each policy domain makes its own case for the work that needs doing.
What governments, organizations, and communities can do about loneliness.
A working catalogue of policies and practices that reduce social isolation, spanning every level of government, the institutions people pass through daily, and the neighbourhoods and groups they belong to. Narrow the list by who could implement a policy and by the populations it most directly serves. Entries with a fully developed brief are marked.
Suggest a policy or practice.
Know an intervention that should be in this resource? Propose it — your suggestion is sent to the team for review and possible inclusion.
The policies you've endorsed.
A running list of the policies and practices you've signalled deserve attention. Your endorsements are saved to your account, so this list follows you across devices.
A working library to build from.
This resource exists to make the policy conversation about loneliness and social isolation in Canada more concrete. It collects the policies and practices that already exist, somewhere, in some form, and the proposals that have not yet been tried here, so that the people thinking about what to do next have something to start from.
What this is
An interactive, browsable directory of policies and practices. Each one is treated as something a reader can pick up, modify, combine, or set aside. Where the work has been done, you'll find a fully developed brief: the proposal as it would apply in Canada, the rationale connecting it to loneliness, examples from jurisdictions that have already implemented something close, the evidence base, and an honest path to making it real here. Where the work is still ahead, you'll find a placeholder that names the policy and tells you which actors and populations it most concerns.
The resource is built around two ways of finding things. You can browse by policy domain, the broad areas where work happens. Or you can open the directory and filter by the actor who could implement a policy, and the population it would most directly serve.
What this isn't
It does not endorse any particular policy. Different ideas suit different orders of government, different communities, and different political moments. It offers references to weigh rather than prescriptions to follow.
It is also not finished, and probably never will be. New policies and practices will be added as they surface; existing ones will be revised or removed as evidence develops. If something looks wrong, or if there's a policy you think belongs here and doesn't, please get in touch.
Who this is for
Public servants developing federal, provincial, or municipal strategies. Parliamentarians and political staff drafting platforms, briefs, and legislation. Civil society organizations advocating for specific reforms. Community foundations and funders deciding where to put resources. Researchers situating their work in a policy frame. Anyone tired of "we should do something about loneliness" who is looking for a starting point for what.