Loneliness is a hazard to our health. Conversations can make every block better
Kansas City, it’s time to reconnect.
While our world is more interlinked by technology than ever before, we live in a lonely society. Across the country, personal isolation is on the rise. It is an epidemic spreading coast to coast. According to a study by the American Cancer Society, social isolation is linked to a higher risk of earlier death, and Inc. reports that loneliness is just as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Civic and social organizations across the country have declining memberships, and many have been forced to disband. A 2018 study by the insurance company Cigna revealed that only half of those surveyed had what they called meaningful in-person social interactions. A Pew Research Center survey notes that only about a quarter of Americans living in the suburbs know all or most of their neighbors.
This crisis not only affects us as individuals and impedes connections within our neighborhoods, but it also impacts small business owners. Being a small business owner can be a lonely endeavor. The Harvard Business Review’s CEO Snapshot Survey noted that half of chief executives experience loneliness, and 61% of them think those feelings hinder their effectiveness in their jobs. During recent focus groups of small business owners conducted by H&R Block, some entrepreneurs told us that connections were even more important to them than capital.
Bottom line: Our neighborhoods and business communities are suffering because we are having fewer face-to-face conversations.
At H&R Block, we believe we can make a difference. That’s why we are partnering with the neighborhood social network platform Nextdoor, the Kauffman Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, KC Rise Fund and the Urban Neighborhood Initiative to launch Make Every Block Better. It’s a new community impact program to help foster more conversations and help people and small business owners connect to the people around them.
We believe we are uniquely suited to help tackle social isolation at the neighborhood level. Every year, at more than 10,000 H&R Block offices across the nation, we engage in conversations with more than 12 million Americans. That equals approximately 12 million hours of discussion annually. For many people, those interactions could be the most important conversations they have with anyone that year. We’re not just helping people get a financial outcome at tax time. Rather, we are providing a forum for profound connection with people in our communities.
Along with fostering conversations, we plan to invest more than $6.5 million during the next five years to use the expertise and retail footprint of H&R Block to bring people together. We will improve the places where people convene and create opportunities for small business owners to meet one another and share ideas, so they can feel less disconnected on their journey of starting a company.
This is just the beginning. Every year, our employees and franchisees donate thousands of hours volunteering and supporting causes important to their local community. Giving back to our community is core to our company, rooted in the civic engagement and volunteerism of our founders, Henry and Richard Bloch. They believed in the power of people helping people by being mentors to entrepreneurs, fostering the love of learning in children and much more. Their vision lives on in our purpose today to provide help and inspire confidence in our clients and communities everywhere.
Kansas City, it’s time to reconnect. We’re ready to make every block better.
Jeff Jones is president and CEO of H&R Block, Inc.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Loneliness is a hazard to our health. Conversations can make every block better."