A Community Initiative to Improve Social Connection
Across Calumet, Outagamie & Winnebago Counties
How do we improve social connection across Northeast Wisconsin?
That is the central question behind Connected Fox Valley, a community initiative focused on strengthening social connection and belonging across our tri-county region – Calumet, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties.
Connected Fox Valley, launched in 2025, was born of our community’s shared desire to strengthen social connection and respond to the growing recognition that loneliness and isolation are pressing public health concerns. Across Wisconsin and the nation, we have become acutely aware – especially since the COVID-19 pandemic – that being socially connected is fundamental to our mental, emotional, and physical health. During the pandemic, we experienced firsthand the profound effects of social isolation, revealing how deeply our well-being depends on one another.
In 2023, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health named social connectedness and belonging as one of the state’s five priority health areas, calling for upstream, communitywide investments that build the conditions for health. Local city, county, and hospital systems across the Fox Valley affirmed this direction through their Community Health Assessments and Improvement Plans, identifying connection and belonging as essential to health and resilience.
The Northeast Wisconsin Mental Health Connection made a strategic decision to take on this work as part of its role as a collective-impact backbone for the region. We saw an opportunity to better understand the full landscape of social connectedness efforts already underway, build on past efforts, align shared interests across sectors, identify gaps, and create a roadmap that honors both community voice and community readiness.
Over the past year, dozens of local partners have come together to explore social connectedness and help create a path forward. Through dialogue, listening, and collaboration, we gathered stories, ideas, and evidence that illuminate what strengthens connection and what gets in the way. What emerged is not a single program or campaign, but a shared vision for a region where people have meaningful relationships, supportive environments, and opportunities to participate fully in community life.
Connected Fox Valley reflects the wisdom and hopes of our community. It elevates the voices of residents who shared their lived experiences, the expertise of Advisory Group members, and the ongoing work of organizations across Calumet, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties. It is both a process and a commitment: to continue learning, collaborating, and investing in the conditions that allow connection and belonging to flourish.
About this website
This website serves as the living home of the Connected Fox Valley initiative. It documents the work as it unfolds – capturing community stories, highlighting existing and emerging strategies, and sharing insights drawn from research, listening, and collaboration. As the initiative moves into its next phase, the site will continue to grow and evolve, reflecting the scope and complexity of this work while making it accessible, grounded, and human. We invite residents, partners, funders, and community leaders to explore, learn, and engage as we work together to strengthen social connection across Northeast Wisconsin.
What is social connection?
Social connection refers to the relationships and sense of belonging people experience with others in their families, friendships, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities. It reflects both the quality and quantity of social relationships and how supported, valued, and connected people feel in daily life.
Adapted from definitions used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
What is social isolation?
Social isolation refers to the objective lack or infrequency of social contact with other people. It describes having few relationships, limited social interactions, or minimal participation in social, community, or civic life—regardless of how a person feels about that level of contact.
Adapted from definitions used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
What is loneliness?
Loneliness is the subjective feeling of being disconnected from others. It occurs when a person’s social relationships do not meet their emotional or relational needs—and it can be experienced even when someone is surrounded by people.
Adapted from definitions used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
Why is The Connection leading this work?
As an established and trusted community leader in systems change, The Northeast Wisconsin Mental Health Connection is uniquely positioned to lead this effort. Our role is not to deliver programs or promote a single solution, but to convene, connect, and align the many people and systems that shape well-being across the region.
Collective impact is at the core of what we do. The Connection brings together partners across public health, healthcare, local government, education, nonprofits, philanthropy, and community groups to build shared understanding, align data with lived experience, and identify where coordinated action can make the greatest difference. This kind of work requires time, trust, and a neutral table – capacity that few individual organizations can hold on their own.
Connected Fox Valley builds on this backbone role by creating space for reflection, learning, and alignment across sectors and communities. By stepping back to understand the full landscape of efforts, experiences, and needs, The Connection helps move the region beyond isolated initiatives toward a more coordinated, community-informed approach to belonging – one that reflects local realities, shared priorities, and the voices of people who call Northeast Wisconsin home.
Mission & Guiding Principles
Our Mission:
Convene diverse community partners and residents to understand and address social isolation and loneliness in Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties. By grounding our work in lived experience, local data, and cross-sector collaboration, we align efforts and advance practical strategies that strengthen social connection as a foundation for mental health and well-being.
What We Will Create:
Our work will result in recommendations for the community, a collective understanding of where leverage exists, aligned priorities, and stronger coordination among partners — helping move the region from awareness to action in addressing isolation and strengthening belonging.
We Believe That:
Community members and leaders are the experts of their own communities and can determine the best courses of action to suit their unique contexts.
We Aim To:
Embed an equity perspective in our approach by focusing on the following central questions:
– Who has not been in the conversation?
– Who is most at risk?
– What are the root causes that have contributed to our current condition of social connection?
We acknowledge that social disconnection is a community challenge, not an individual failing.
Methodologies
Connected Fox Valley was shaped through a community-centered process that combined data, lived experience, and local expertise. The goal was to understand how social connection and belonging show up in everyday life across Calumet, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties. To do this, the initiative relied on three core methods: an Advisory Group, community listening sessions, and interviews with community leaders and subject-matter experts.
Advisory Group
Connected Fox Valley was guided by a diverse Advisory Group of community representatives who served as thought leaders throughout the initiative. Members represented public health, local government, education, healthcare, nonprofits, neighborhood organizations, transportation, aging, youth services, and other sectors that shape social connection.
Beginning in April 2025, the Advisory Group met every other month for four formal sessions, with additional one-on-one conversations as needed. Together, members helped shape the direction and development of the work. Their role included:
- Reviewing and mapping social connectedness projects, programs, and initiatives across the tri-county region to identify what is working, where efforts overlap, and where greater alignment is possible.
- Identifying gaps, barriers, and challenges that limit social connection for different populations.
- Exploring and vetting potential strategies, with attention to local fit and relevance across settings and communities.
- Engaging in deep discussion about how social disconnection affects different populations in distinct ways.
- Helping plan and inform community listening sessions, including outreach strategies, focus populations, and framing of discussion questions.
The Advisory Group played a critical role in ensuring that Connected Fox Valley builds on existing community strengths and reflects both evidence and lived experience.
Community Listening Sessions
Community listening sessions were a central part of the methodology. These sessions were designed to hear directly from residents about what connection and belonging mean in their lives.
Sessions were held across the tri-county region and included older adults, parents and caregivers, people with disabilities, veterans, immigrants, and people living in recovery, among others. Listening sessions are continuing into early 2026 and will include additional conversations with LGBTQ+ community members, immigrants and refugees, and others who are often underrepresented in planning efforts.
Each session was adapted to the needs of the group being engaged. Some sessions were small-group discussions, while others involved one-on-one conversations. Participants received a $25 gift card to compensate them for their time. Sessions were held at locations and times that were convenient and accessible to participants.
Facilitators used a consistent set of open-ended questions focused on key themes, including how people define connection and belonging, what helps or hinders relationships, where people feel included or excluded, how identity and life experience shape connection, and what a more connected community could look like in the future.
Across sessions, participants spoke about relationships, neighborhoods, public spaces, transportation, time, and trust. Many shared how systems and policies shape their ability to connect. They also highlighted resilience, informal support, and community care that already exist.
Interviews
In-depth interviews added another layer of insight. Conversations were held with community leaders, advocates, and subject-matter experts working in housing, transportation, parks and public spaces, healthcare, education, faith communities, and civic life. Interviews explored how social connection is shaped by policy, funding, and organizational structures. They also surfaced opportunities for stronger coordination and long-term impact. Interviews are continuing into 2026 as the initiative evolves.
Acknowlegements
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We would like to thank the more than two dozen members of the Connected Fox Valley Advisory Group for their guidance, expertise, and thought leadership throughout the development of this initiative. Their input and diverse perspectives, representing sectors such as health care, local government, education, business, transportation, housing, and community-based organizations, helped shape a shared understanding of what social connectedness means in our region and informed the priorities and strategies outlined in this report. We also extend our sincere appreciation to the dozens of community members who participated in listening sessions across Calumet, Outagamie, and Winnebago counties. Their willingness to share candid insights, experiences, and aspirations around belonging, isolation, and community connection provided essential context and grounding for this work. These conversations illuminated both the assets that strengthen connection in our communities and the barriers that prevent it, helping to ensure that Connected Fox Valley reflects the lived realities of the diverse people throughout Northeastern Wisconsin. We also wish to recognize the contributions of Karen Iverson-Riggers and Lynn McLaughlin, of Ebb & Flow Connections Cooperative who co-facilitated our Advisory Group meetings and helped lead our community listening sessions. We also gratefully acknowledge our funders and partners whose financial and administrative support are making this initiative possible: the City of Appleton (American Rescue Plan Act funding), Outagamie County (ARPA funding), the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, and our fiscal agent, Winnebago County Public Health. |
Participating organizations include:ADRC (Aging & Disability Resource Center) of Calumet County |
Frameworks That Informed Our Approach
Promising Strategies for Social Connection | Foundation for Social Connection
We drew from the Foundation for Social Connection’s Promising Strategies for Social Connection, which offers a a set of systems-level categories, such as built environment, education, health, cultivating skills, civic engagement, and safety, that shape the conditions for social connection.
The Six Points of Connection | U.S. Chamber of Connection
The U.S. Chamber of Connection developed the Six Points of Connection, a practical framework outlining key elements of social connection at the individual and community level – including neighbor networks, identity-based communities, activity participation, regular one-on-one contact, shared “third places,” and community service. This checklist highlights behaviors and environments that strengthen connection, trust, and civic engagement.
Socially Connected Communities: Solutions for Social Isolation | Healthy Places By Design
Healthy Places By Design’s Socially Connected Communities initiative and report emphasize place-based and community-led action to address social isolation. Their solutions focus on strategies at the systems and environmental level – including public spaces, transportation, housing, community infrastructure, and policy levers – to create neighborhoods and regions in which people can thrive through connection.
Our Epidemic of Loneliness & Social Connection Framework | Office of the U.S. Surgeon General
The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community lays out a national strategy to advance social connection as a public health priority. It identifies a framework of six foundational pillars – from strengthening social infrastructure and enacting pro-connection public policy to mobilizing the health sector and building a culture of connection – that guide multi-sector efforts to address loneliness, isolation, and disconnection at scale.
Did you know?
- Loneliness is as harmful to health as obesity and physical inactivity, and even smoking up to 15 cigarettes per day.
- Social isolation increases dementia risk by up to 50%.
- Belonging is linked to longer life expectancy and better mental health.
Source →
Source:
The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community
Loneliness among adults - 2023
Roughly one in four Tri-County adults report feeling lonely, according to 2023 CDC data.
Calumet County - 23.6%
Outagamie County - 23.1%
Winnebago County - 24.6%
Source →
Social connection protects against suicide
- Strong social connection is one of the most powerful protective factors against suicide and mental health crises.
- Individuals with strong social ties have lower rates of depression, substance use, and suicide attempts.
- Wisconsin has prioritized social connectedness as a key upstream suicide-prevention strategy.
Source →
Source:
Wisconsin Suicide Prevention Plan (2025) – The state plan explicitly includes enhancing feelings of belonging and connectedness to others as a protective strategy against suicide and isolation.