The Journey Begins: KORALE's Kickoff Meeting

Welcome to the inaugural blog post of KORALE, where we're embarking on an inspiring journey to combat loneliness and foster community connection across Europe. Our recent kickoff meeting marked the beginning of this transformative endeavor, as representatives from Adinberri Foundation - Basque Country / Spain, Social City Vienna - Austria, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa - Portugal, Fingal County Council - Ireland, Municipalty of Aalst - Belgium, and DEFACTUM / Central Region Denmark came together to lay the groundwork for a collaborative exchange of experiences.

Unveiling KORALE: A Vision for Change

KORALE, short for "Towards a Community of Practice and Knowledge on Preventing and Tackling Loneliness from Public Policies," represents a qualitative step in addressing the pressing issue of loneliness and social isolation. Our mission is clear: to improve public policies by incorporating strategies to prevent and tackle loneliness among both the elderly and youth populations.

Driving Change Through Collaboration

Over the next four years, our partner organizations will work diligently to achieve three key objectives on the regional level:

• Identify and Share Good Practices: From individual to community levels, KORALE will focus on discovering effective approaches that prevent or address loneliness, emphasizing low-threshold access routes.
• Learn from Successful Interventions: By studying successful intervention strategies deployed early in life, we aim to reduce the incidence of loneliness in later years, prioritizing longer-term solutions.
• Transform Good Practices into Impactful Policies: Through rigorous analysis and collaboration, we'll identify the key factors that enable successful practices to be transformed into higher-impact policies, integrating them into sectors such as health, education, and housing.

This knowledge will be shared through targeted activities on the interregional level such as study visits, learning events, and peer review workshops.

A Multifaceted Approach

At KORALE, our approach is multifaceted, encompassing various political levels and sectors to drive impactful change. From municipal to regional policies, we're committed to integrating strategies that address loneliness and promote social connection across all levels of governance.

Stakeholders' involvement is enhanced through:

• A participatory approach, enabling project partners to engage in continuous consultation with stakeholders. Stakeholders will form Local Stakeholder Groups for good practices analysis. A 4-helix approach exercise will ensure no key stakeholder is left behind.
• A multidisciplinary approach, covering all loneliness-related issues comprehensively. It examines the roles of administration, families, communities, and individuals experiencing loneliness to find synergies and complementarities.

Join Us on Our Journey!

Are you passionate about tackling loneliness and fostering social connection in your community? Whether you're an expert in the field or simply eager to support our mission, we invite you to become part of the KORALE initiative. Your expertise and contributions are invaluable as we work together to create a brighter, more connected future.

Stay tuned for updates and insights as we embark on this remarkable journey together with KORALE!