When I was 12, I was ready to make my first foray into the working world. So, I did what any enterprising pre-teen would do—I reached out to family and friends to drum up some business.

Before long, I was the go-to babysitter for a slate of local kids, earning a whopping 50 cents an hour. A couple of years later, armed with a hefty list of references, I applied for a job as a camp counselor at the local summer camp. I got the job, and as I got to know even more families in the community, I realized that many of these parents knew some things that my family didn’t. I started asking around for advice about my future—how to choose a career path, how to apply to college, and just general wisdom about making it in the world.

Looking back, I see that social connectedness paved my pathway to prosperity. We’ve all heard the adage, “Your network is your net worth,” and while I don’t particularly love that phrase, there’s a lot of truth in it. Research, including a wide-ranging new study from Opportunity Insights, has concluded that shifts in economic mobility hinge on social interactions and neighborhood-level changes.

At Purpose Built Communities, our mission is to generate upward economic mobility for those living in the neighborhoods where we are invited to work. We have seen the power of fostering social connectedness in neighborhoods across our Network. Now, we have clear data that supports our focus on neighborhoods and building connections within them, especially across common divides like race and class. Best of all, the study showed that big gains in economic mobility are possible in just one generation!

I hope you find these findings as invigorating as I do! Examples like these confirm what we see among our Network Members: generating greater economic mobility is possible. When we focus on strengthening neighborhoods, including deepening social connectedness, we can reduce historic disparities and make sure every child has a chance to live a prosperous, choice-filled life.

Even better, we can do it in a way that makes all of us stronger. By focusing on social connectedness, we reweave the social fabric of neighborhoods, generate better health outcomes, break down silos of loneliness, and give people from all walks of life a common purpose: seeing neighborhoods thrive.

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Let’s get to work! After all this talk of social connectedness, it seems like the perfect moment to ask you to stay connected through our email list. It’s a great resource for those curious about or committed to ensuring pathways of opportunity in every neighborhood in America. You can sign up here.

Warm regards,

Carol Naughton