Social Creatures

Year Founded: 2020

Social Creatures’ mission is to advance social health—the well-being that comes from our relationships, connections, and sense of belonging—as a vital pillar of overall health. They merge science and community wisdom to create programs, resources, and systems-change strategies that strengthen social connection and make health and belonging more equitable for those most affected by loneliness, isolation, and exclusion.

Social Creatures operates from the evidence that social connection is as essential to health as nutrition, sleep, and exercise, yet access to it remains deeply inequitable. Through our three integrated strategies—Innovate, Educate, and Advocate—we co-design evidence-based programs with communities most affected by loneliness and isolation, translate social health science into accessible tools and resources, and drive policy and systems change to embed social health as a recognized pillar of care. When individuals experience stronger social connection, they see measurable improvements in mental and physical health. When systems change, those benefits become equitable and sustained.

Social Creatures was founded in April 2020 (at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic)  by social neuroscientists and psychologists who had spent over a decade studying the links between social connection and health. Recognizing that loneliness and isolation were a public health crisis long before the pandemic, we launched to move the science of social health into action through programs, tools, and systems-change strategies grounded in both research and lived experience. Social Creatures was proud to be part of New Profit’s inaugural Mental Health Equity Cohort, which helped accelerate our work at the intersection of social connection and health equity. Today, we operate a Social Innovation Lab, a science communication platform, and an active policy and advocacy arm—delivering programs, tools, and systems-change strategies that make social health more equitable and accessible.