Community Living Room fights loneliness epidemic in Wisconsin

APPLETON, WI—(WISS)— The term “loneliness epidemic” was first coined in Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone, in 2000. Just after the COVID pandemic, Harvard issued its first Loneliness in America report. One initiative designed to combat loneliness is finding success in Wisconsin. It is called the Community Living Room.

In his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said, “While loneliness has the potential to kill, connection has even more potential to heal.”

The Community Living Room is the brainchild of Lynn McGlaughlin and Karen Iverson Riggers, two Fox Valley women who created Ebb & Flow Connections Cooperative. This Wisconsin-based worker-owned cooperative provides training, consultation, and listening spaces related to emotional health and wellness. The Community Living Room offers a healing space where people are seen, heard, and valued as they are. Its focus is on present-moment connection and support.

“ The community living room is a nonclinical supportive space for people looking for connection. Not always distress or crisis, but just connecting with people at a real, authentic level,” said McLaughlin.

Iverson Riggers said The Community Living Room came out of the Emotional CPR training.

“We’ve trained more than 2,500 people in Emotional CPR, and lots of folks asked, ‘Where can I find someone who’s gonna listen like this?’ And so that’s part of where Community Living Room came from, was creating a listening space without judgment, without fixing, without plans, just being present with each other,” said Iverson Riggers.

Combating loneliness

The Community Living Room started its mission in Appleton and the Fox Valley with pop-up living rooms in libraries and other public-facing community spaces. Now, Living Room events happen throughout the state, in person and virtually, and in the Community Living Room’s brick-and-mortar space at 113 W. Harris Street, Suite 1010, in Appleton.

The Community Living Room does not require anyone to engage with others to use the space.

“There’s really all kinds of opportunity to just be seen and heard exactly as you are,” McLaughlin said. “Whether you are experiencing life and it’s hard, or you’re lonely.”

“We have somebody who comes into the living room, and he just sits on the couch and reads a book to just be with people. And so we have activities that we do, but it’s also okay if folks don’t. You know, it could be kind of weird talking to somebody you don’t know about something that’s deeper or intense,” Iverson Riggers said. “And so we open that space for folks to really engage in a way that’s comfortable for them.”

McLaughlin emphasizes that there are no monetary requirements to use the Community Living Room either.

“So there’s no need for an appointment, no insurance, no diagnosis, no label, so to speak. It’s open to all human beings that have a heartbeat and breathe,” she said.

Research supported

The Community Living Room is seeing proof that it is working to combat the loneliness epidemic. Iverson Riggers said Dr. Sarah Kohlbeck of the Medical College of Wisconsin researched the Community Living Room and found it to be successful.

“In summary, it said this project is phenomenal at reducing both emotional distress and social isolation and loneliness–both for the folks who are coming in, walking in as well as the listeners,” Iverson Riggers said. “That listeners are saying like, ‘I feel less alone. I don’t feel isolated. I feel like I have a connection.’ And we hear that loudly both through the research that Dr. Kohlbeck did and through what folks tell us.”

Community foundations and other partners fund the Community Living Room. 

To find out more about pop-ups or hours for connection at the Community Living Room, visit the website: https://www.communitylivingroom.org/

“ It’s organic. Every living room is different. Sometimes it’s, you know, we’re supporting one person that’s going through a lot. Sometimes it’s playing a very competitive game of Yatzee!” said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin and Iversson Riggers are trainers of Emotional CPR and Emotions Education 101, co-creators of The Missing Piece: Emotional Health & Wellness curriculum.