An Organization Tackling Loneliness

I recently read about a Danish organization––Ventilen––that is working to alleviate loneliness by connecting people.

Ventilen currently offers 21 venues in Denmark where young people looking for companionship can meet one another. There are 15 gathering places for people aged 15-25, and six KOMsammen, or “Fit for Friendship” places, which focus on food and movement for those aged 15-30. The essential services its venues offer are straightforward, and yet can be so elusive: a place to go, things to do, and people to do them with.

I don’t think it’s an actual cure for loneliness. Popular people with many friends are sometimes lonely. It’s possible to be lonely in a crowd. And while you can put yourself in spaces where connection is more likely to happen, it also sometimes doesn’t happen for another individual, even if the people not connecting with them are equally seeking emotional connection.

Every human knows through experience that people need friends. But we also know that every human also rejects some people, even though we’re all armed with that knowledge.

Anyway, it’s a step in the right direction. It’s creating a space where connection could happen in a purposeful, mindful way. And it’s doing so with sensitivity. It just sounded like a great organization, one that takes the American idea of a buddy bench a step further in usefulness.