Belonging begins here

The De Pere Health Department and community partners in De Pere are joining together to sponsor several events in September focused on promoting “Social Connectedness” as a key element of health and wellbeing.

“There’s been research done and found that [lack of social connection] increases the risk of premature death…” said De Pere Public Health Nurse Danielle Jauquet. “It affects your overall well-being — your mental health and then your physical health as well. There’s less people looking out for you, less people encouraging healthy habits, supporting healthy lifestyle habits and things like that.”

“There’s been a wider focus nationally and statewide on social connection and that certainly filters down to the local level,” Jauquet said. “It’s something that we’ve been really passionate about this year as well and would like to continue to see moving forward… We’re trying to bring people back together and create that sense of community, whether it’s for mental health or physical health. And we’re trying to put our name out there a little more and say, ‘This is how we can help.’ We’re more than just letting people know about COVID shots and things like that. We do a wide variety of health-related issues and services and we’d love to do as many events like this as we can moving forward.”

The efforts to encourage social connectedness within the De Pere community kicked off with the unveiling of a mural earlier this week.

At this week’s De Pere Farmers’ Market, Beau Thomas’ mural “Belonging Begins Here” was officially unveiled at an event held in collaboration with Definitely De Pere to celebrate the power of art in fostering community spirit.
“We’re trying to get that extra welcoming to people in our community and encourage social connection through art and the environment,” Jauquet said.
The push to build social connections through the mural, Jauquet said, started before a design had even been chosen.

“We had eight or nine submissions which we reviewed as a committee to make sure that they met all the criteria we were looking for specific to social connection and creating a sense of belonging,” she said. “Then we put three of them to a community vote to try and engage the community and connect people. We had two in-person voting events where we were able to talk to people and get them to vote in-person and then also online as well… Beau’s design ultimately won.”

Coming up this week on Sept. 19, the De pere Health Department and St. Norbert Health and Wellness Center will host a workshop led by Dr. Carol Bruess, relationship social scientist.

The Science of Social Interaction: Building a Vibrant and Healthy Community with Micro-Moments of Human Connection, will be a dynamic discussion of how simple, everyday interactions can lead to significant health benefits.

“Dr. Carol Bruess is a wonderful speaker who has done TED Talks, written books and done a lot of research on relationships and social connections and how technology effects those things,” Jauquet said. “She’s going to talk about the loneliness and isolation epidemic. That was certainly increased by COVID — those feelings of isolation.”

The final installment in the Social Connectedness campaign will be a documentary screening followed by a “joining fair” held at the Mulva Cultural Center on Sept. 26.

Attendees will have the opportunity to watch Join or Die, a documentary focused on the decline in American community connections and how the trend can be reversed.

Following the film, a joining fair will provide an opportunity for community members to learn about and join local groups, leagues, clubs and organizations.

“It’s a great film and very interesting,” Jauquet said. “We hope that when people see it, they’ll be inspired to join something and understand how that affects their health and how it can be good for their health and community. We’ll have 18 different booths of organizations mostly from De Pere, but also from the wider Brown County — things like De Pere Kiwanis and the Lions Club and the Optimist Club and then some volunteer organizations as well, like the American Red Cross… People can check them out and chat with different members and see if there’s anything they’re interested in joining.”

For more information and to register for events, please visit the City of De Pere’s Social Connectedness page at deperewi.gov/belong.