The Marcia Slater Johnston Award for Outstanding Leadership in Community-Based Efforts to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness is conferred annually by the Foundation for Social Connection at its Action Forum, which took place this past October at Harvard University. This year’s recipient is Center for Council’s Executive Director, Jared Seide.

The Foundation for Social Connection was founded in 2020 with a vision for all Americans to have the opportunities and evidence-based support necessary for a socially connected life. The Foundation engages in education, increases public awareness, promotes innovative research, and spurs the development and implementation of evidence-based models that address social isolation and loneliness and promote social connection. The annual Action Forum convenes the best and brightest thought leaders and change-makers from across the globe to raise the visibility of our nation’s crisis of connection, spotlighting ground-breaking innovations, spurring commitments to action, and promoting real evidence- and system-based change for a more socially connected future.

The Marcia Slater Johnston Award is presented each year to one recipient who exemplifies exceptional leadership and dedication in reducing social isolation and loneliness and promoting connection in their community. The award recognizes exceptional work at the community, local, or state level to address Social Isolation, Loneliness, Social Connection and Social Wellbeing. Recipients must demonstrate identifiable impact that is trackable and has the potential to scale to a broader level, with added resources and support.

The 2023 Marcia Slater Johnston Award recognizes Jared’s accomplishments in creating evidence-based programming that promotes social connection for a variety of challenging populations. The award singles out Jared’s work with Beyond Us & Them (formerly Center for Council) to combine the latest innovations in contemplative neuroscience with mindfulness practice and training in the skills of council facilitation.

In conferring this award, the Foundation for Social Connection celebrates Jared’s achievements in creating a wide variety of council-based offerings that foster a culture of social connection, engagement and resilience for system-impacted, incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated individuals, educators, students, healthcare and mental health professionals, community leaders and law enforcement officers.

The award also marks the initiation of a collaboration between The Foundation for Social Connection and Beyond Us & Them, the new nonprofit organization that was launched to expand the vision of Center for Council by creating “structures of belonging” that promote mutual respect, wellbeing and care across sectors, helping to dismantle systems of oppression, exclusion and racism and creating the conditions for compassion to emerge.

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Learn about all of our Beyond Us & Them programs here.

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For more information on this and other Beyond Us & Them programs, please contact us.