Our Mission

ConnectWellEd began with a conversation.

Years ago, Alison asked Rehema, “What is the most widespread, debilitating health challenge facing your young adult patients?”

Rehema’s response? “Isolation.”

Alison was seeing the same phenomenon in the school communities she was coaching in. And ConnectWellEd was born.

We’ve said it before and we’ve said it again: It doesn’t have to be this way. Another world is possible, a world in which every human being experiences strong, healthy connections, a world in which no one feels alone, a world in which each person has the skills to connect well.

Connecting well supports not only individual well-being but collective well-being. As the philosopher Hannah Arendt points to in her writings on fascism, connecting well can prevent us from seeking connection in destructive contexts, such as counter-democratic movements. Secure, strong, healthily attached relationships of all kinds, especially those across lines of difference, can and do support democracy.

At ConnectWellEd, we’re passionate about how to strengthen friendships; myriad research studies show that friendships are essential to our health as human beings. We teach how to build them.