The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced a unique call for proposals for solutions adapted from international models to combat social isolation. The opportunity, which is dubbed “Developing Solutions for Social isolation in the U.S.: Learning from the World, commences October 30, 2017 and ends December 21, 2017.

RWJ Foundation has already hosted a webinar earlier this month, but has made the  slides and webinar  recording available for prospective applicants.

For more information, see RWJ Foundation’s announcement below:

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has issued a call for proposals looking for the best ideas from around the world that address social isolation and promote positive, healthy social connections, and well-being. Social connections can help us thrive. But too many people feel disconnected from society and from life, and that contributes to a host of physical, mental, and emotional health problems. School children, teens, new mothers, immigrants, LGBT people, people living in remote areas, even millennials with thousands of Facebook friends, often feel excluded or like they don’t belong.

We want to learn about solutions that have worked in other countries to address social isolation across all ages and life stages, so that we can strengthen social connection in the United States. For this new grant opportunity, totaling $2.5M in funding, the foundation wants to hear from both United States-based organizations that want to adapt an idea from overseas, and international institutions with an idea that could be brought to the United States to build social connections across all ages and life stages.

Please find more information about eligibility and selection criteria here. We’ve also put together a simple toolkit to help people share the opportunity with their networks.