What is the Social Innovation Lab?
The Social Innovation Lab is where Social Creatures integrates scientific insight with lived experience to design and test new ways to strengthen social health. By bringing together researchers, practitioners, and people most affected by loneliness, isolation, or exclusion, the Lab develops evidence-based, real-world solutions that foster connection and belonging, improve mental and physical well-being, and help close health disparities.
Launched Programs
62% of new parents report feeling lonely.
A postpartum health program that embeds social health care into routine healthcare, ensuring every parent has access to the connection and community they need to thrive. Designed with and for parents who face the greatest barriers to social connection, Bonded by Baby strengthens new parents’ social health and well-being so that both parent and child can flourish.
A free, seated fitness program co-designed with wheelchair users to address one of the prominent root causes of loneliness and social isolation among people with disabilities: most spaces where community life happens were never designed for people with disabilities to fully participate. By designing for full participation from the start, SitGrit breaks down the barriers to social connection that people with disabilities face every day, led by world-class trainers including Paralympic athletes and performance coaches.
People with disabilities are 4X lonelier than those without disabilities.
In the Lab
Young adults (ages 18–24) report the highest rates of loneliness of any age group.
Young Adult
Loneliness Project
Seed-funded by Pinterest Impact Lab, this community-based research and design initiative is co-led by young adults to uncover the root causes of loneliness in their generation and create new pathways to stronger social health and belonging.
SitGrit Kids
A program in development, currently being co-designed with children with disabilities, their parents, and educators, aimed at ensuring every child has equal opportunities to participate, connect, and belong in physical activities
Children with disabilities are 4.5x less likely to be included in physical activities.
Past Programs & Projects
NABU Learning Labs
A research partnership with NABU that explored how literacy programs can strengthen social connection, belonging, and empathy among children globally. Funded by the Schmidt Futures Forum on Learning Tools Competition, the collaboration produced research shared with NYU and Mount Sinai, to help ensure literacy programs build not just reading skills but the social bonds that support children's overall health and well-being.
Generational Youth Mentors
Created during the COVID-19 pandemic amid school closures, GYM provided K-8 students with academic and social support through one-on-one virtual mentoring from high school and college students. Launched in partnership with the Charles Lazarus Children’s Abilities Center at Mount Sinai and STEAMPark, the program ensured equitable access to connection and learning for children most at risk of isolation and learning loss.
Digital Safety Nets Initiative
During the pandemic, this initiative provided 953 digital devices to low-income individuals who lacked access to technology, ensuring isolation wasn’t compounded by digital exclusion. The program helped people stay connected to care, learning, and one another. Students who received devices reported greater participation and productivity in online learning and found it easier to connect with teachers and peers across all grade levels.
We are a collective of scientists, creatives, and activists united by a vision of a world of togetherness.