
Social Prescribing for You & Me
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THE CONNECTION CURE Crowdsourced DSM - a guide highlighting the before-and-after testimonies of people who’ve found relief from their sadness, stress, worry, anger, and loneliness through movement, nature, art, service, and belonging
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10 Questions to Uncover What Matters to You -a list of questions you can ask yourself to uncover what matters to you, and reconnect with your deepest sources of joy and meaning
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THE CONNECTION CURE Discussion Questions - a list of discussion questions you can use in a book club, classroom, or an organized group setting
THE CONNECTION CURE Breakout Activity - a breakout activity you can use to complement a book discussion
Feeling sad, stuck, worried, grumpy or lonely? Need help discovering your social prescription? These guides, questions, and activities can help.
Ready to prescribe yourself connection?
This section crowdsources links to free or donation-based local community activities involving movement, nature, art, service, and conversation— medicine proven to help boost our mood, energy, and attention.
Submit your suggestion here.
(NOTE: While we’re starting with New York, virtual, or chapter-based organizations, including those featured in THE CONNECTION CURE book, we hope to eventually build a national database with Social Prescribing USA.)
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Back on My Feet - a group leading biweekly early morning walks and runs to “empower people to achieve economic independence through fitness and community”
Reboot: - a group leading weekly community dances with silent disco as a way to help us “reboot our communities and ourselves”
GirlTrek - a walking group that aims to “bring health and happiness to the doorsteps of 700 million Black women worldwide”
Walk with a Doc- a group leading “walking programs in communities around the world led by local doctors, healthcare providers, or medical students”
Park Run - a free, community event where you can walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate”
North Brooklyn Runners- a community of runners of all levels facilitating free weekly runs, social events, and local volunteer opportunities
NYC Parks Programming- a city organization leading swimming lessons, fitness programs, and moreAging Connect - a collection of activities for seniors supported by New York City Department of the Aging, with activities spanning cooking, theater, gardening, legal support, and more
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McGorlick Bird Club- a neighborhood group leading weekly birdwatching sessions every Saturday at 9am
Redshed Community Garden- a volunteer-run community organization and public green space.
GreenThumb - the nation's largest urban gardening program, sustaining over 550 community gardens and supporting thousands of volunteer gardeners throughout New York City
NYC Parks Programming - a city organization leading bird watching sessions, park ranger programs, and more
Bronx GreenUp - the community gardening outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden providing horticulture education, training, and technical assistance to Bronx residents, community gardeners, urban farmers, local schools, and community organizations
Aging Connect - a collection of activities for seniors supported by New York City Department of the Aging, with activities spanning cooking, theater, gardening, legal support, and more
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Culture Pass- free passes to 100+ cultural institutions, museums, and attractions across NYC, through New York Public Library
New York Ethical Society - a group offering virtual circles for storytelling, poetry, and literature discussions
Musical Instrument Lending Library - a musical instrument lending library enabling adults to rent a musical instrument for up to one month, through New York Public Library
Gaia Music Collective - a group running “ one-night ensembles… exploring spontaneous songs, rhythms & harmonies as we give voice to the fire within”
McGorlick Art Club - a plein-air (French for open air) style art session with local artist, Saturdays at 9am in McGorlick Park
The Lullaby Project - a program pairing new and expecting parents and caregivers with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies
CultureDose Sessions (virtual) - an online “slow looking” art experience with wellbeing as its primary focus
Aging Connect - a collection of activities for seniors supported by New York City Department of the Aging, with activities spanning cooking, theater, gardening, legal support, and more
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North Brooklyn Mutual Aid - a community group of neighbors helping neighbors
GrowNYC - a volunteer group facilitating opportunities to help fellow New Yorkers have equitable access to fresh, locally grown food, neighborhood green spaces, opportunities to reduce waste, and care for the environment
New York Cares - New York’s largest volunteer organization providing year-round volunteer opportunities around education, hunger, homelessness, green spaces
Gods Love We Deliver- an organization cooking and home-delivering nutritious, medically tailored meals for people too sick to shop or cook for themselves
IRC Volunteer Community Interpreter Program- a program that aims to provide language access to help newly arrived refugees and immigrants make informed decisions about their lives, with special interest Arabic, Amharic, Mandarin, Spanish, French, Urdu, Dari, Farsi, Swahili, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, and Russian.
Redshed Community Garden- a volunteer-run community organization and public green space
GreenThumb - the nation's largest urban gardening program, sustaining over 550 community gardens and supporting thousands of volunteer gardeners throughout New York City
Bronx GreenUp- the community gardening outreach program of The New York Botanical Garden providing horticulture education, training, and technical assistance to Bronx residents, community gardeners, urban farmers, local schools, and community organizations
Dorot - a collection of programs and services focused bridging intergenerational connections with volunteers of all ages, with a focus on meeting seniors’ needs for “food and friendship”
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Skip the Small Talk -a group offering in-person and online meetups, using psychological research-backed techniques to help people “interact more genuinely and feel more connected to each other in their daily lives.”
Living Room Conversations - a group offering in-person and online meetups that aim to connect people across divides and within communities to build understanding through conversation
Life Story Club - a group organizing virtual social clubs for older adults to share life stories
Best Day of My Life So Far - a group organizing intergenerational connection through storytelling groups, seminars, and pop-up events
Community Plate - a group hosting free community potluck dinners and storytelling events focused on non-partisan, cross-cultural, intergenerational sharing
Charlas Spanish Language Exchange- a Spanish Convo Club meeting every Saturday at 1 pm to practice speaking Spanish
Aging Connect- a collection of activities for seniors supported by New York City Department of the Aging, with activities spanning cooking, theater, gardening, legal support, and more
Dorot - a collection of programs and services focused bridging intergenerational connections with volunteers of all ages, with a focus on meeting seniors’ needs for “food and friendship”
Prescribe Yourself Series
Introducing the "PRESCRIBE YOURSELF" YouTube series—profiling the free or low-cost local community activities that reconnect us to one of the five core medicines explored in The Connection Cure: movement, nature, art, service, and belonging.