The Reliants Project newsletter is 1 year old this week! Thanks to all of you who have stuck around since the beginning and to all the new readers who have joined along the way. One of the cool things about Substack is that you can easily check out old newsletters. Here are a few oldies but goodies:
#2 - my first newsletter was actually an A/B test, this one was more successful
#8 - highest number of link clicks so far
#21 - highest number of opens so far
Wellbeing
We are not alone. In honour of Mental Health Awareness Month (in the US) and Week (in the UK), here’s a roundup of apps that connect people to peers and/or professionals to support our wellbeing:
Betterhelp: professional counselling for individuals, couples, and young people
Sanvello: peer and professional support for anxiety, stress, and depression
TalkLife: peer support network to help manage the ups and downs of life
The Mighty: communities and peer support for people with all sorts of health challenges (e.g. addiction, mental health, chronic conditions, rare diseases)
Relationships
Recently I’ve been writing a section of my book focused on diversity. This led me to re-read one of the foundational academic papers on the topic: Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks (pdf). Homophily is defined as "the tendency for people to seek out or be attracted to those who are similar to themselves". It’s incredible how such a simple tendency can have broad, world-impacting consequences.
"Homophily limits people’s social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience. Homophily in race and ethnicity creates the strongest divides in our personal environments, with age, religion, education, occupation, and gender following in roughly that order."
Community
How Communities of Color Have Found Strength, Joy and Comfort in a Year Like No Other shares a wonderful set of vignettes from across the US of how people have harnessed community for support over the last year. The story of NorthStar Cycling Club is particularly inspiring:
“When we get on our bikes, it is an element of freedom,” says founding member Edwin Lindo, who launched the cycling club based in Seattle in February 2020, just before the pandemic started. He and co-founder Aaron Bossett wanted to encourage more BIPOC individuals to take up cycling. Lindo, who identifies as Central American, attributes the lack of diversity in cycling to attitudes that often focus on questions like: “Do you have the nicest bike?” or “Do you have the fastest bike?” This culture, he says, is not welcoming to individuals who might not have the means to take up the sport. “There’s an archetype of cycling— we’re not it.”
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About The Reliants Project
Reliant is my word for a person that someone depends on, an essential component of our social networks. With each edition, I’ll share useful nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours. Whether you want to cultivate your relationships, make better introductions, or activate networks to make an impact in the world, let me help you reach your goals.
You can find more about The Reliants Project here.