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Kind things for a group to do together
For a team, a class, a congregation or a few friends. These either need more than one pair of hands, or get noticeably better when several people show up.
Showing 31–57 of 57 ideas
Face them instead of raising your voice
Shouting distorts speech and singles someone out. Facing them and slowing down works far better.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Start something that meets weekly
Loneliness is rarely solved by an event. It is solved by something recurring that requires no arrangement.
OngoingFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Invite the whole household, not just the one you know
Partners and teenagers of a newcomer are often more isolated than the person who has the job or the class.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Teach six people the thing you can do
Most useful skills are held by people who do not think of themselves as qualified to teach them.
An afternoonUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Be the one who actually books it
Everyone agrees they should meet up. Groups fail at the step where somebody names a date and holds it.
5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this
Not rated yet
Give a local group one evening
Small charities and clubs cannot afford the professional help they need, and the gap is usually one evening wide.
An afternoonFreeAn organization
Not rated yet
Bring the new person into the group conversation
A circle of people talking is physically closed. Turning your body is the whole mechanism for opening it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Run an afternoon where things get fixed
Most broken things are thrown away for want of one person with a soldering iron and an hour.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Write down who on the street owns what
A street already contains every tool anyone needs. What it lacks is a list of where they are.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Stand at the door of whatever you go to
Most people who try a group once and never return leave because nobody spoke to them in the first four minutes.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Clear the path next door before your own
Snow and ice are a broken hip for an older neighbor and an inconvenience for you. The order you clear in matters.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Cook for twelve, invite near-strangers
Adults stop making new friends largely because nobody hosts. A table is the cheapest social infrastructure there is.
An afternoonMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Stack it the way they would
Clearing your table is common. Stacking it the way the person collecting it actually needs is rarer and more useful.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Set up a standing childcare swap
Two families alternating one evening a month gives both of them something neither could otherwise afford.
OngoingFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Say whose idea it actually was
Ideas get repeated by louder people and absorbed by the room. Ten words of attribution puts it back where it belongs.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Ask the second question
Most conversations stop at the first answer. The interesting part is one question further in, and almost nobody goes.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Volunteer for the boring part
Every group has people who want to plan and nobody who wants to do the accounts or stack the chairs.
OngoingFreeAn organization
Not rated yet
Notice who has not spoken
In most meetings two or three people never speak, and the reason is almost never that they have nothing to say.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Turn up for the team that is losing
Supporting anything is easy when it is going well. The useful attendance is in a bad season.
OngoingUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Tell someone about the mistake you made
Sharing your own error is more useful than any advice, and far rarer, because it costs something to say.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Quietly cover the person who is skint
Someone stops coming out because they cannot afford it, and tells everyone they are busy instead.
5 minutesMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Sit with whoever came on their own
At any gathering there is someone standing at the edge working out how soon they can leave.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Be the easy customer at closing time
The last half hour of a shift is when tiny inconveniences decide whether someone gets home on time.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Organize two hours of clearing up
A litter pick is mostly an excuse. Forty neighbors meeting each other is the actual output.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Clear the drain outside someone else's house
Ten minutes with a rake in autumn is the difference between a puddle and a flooded front room in the next heavy rain.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Bring something to whoever has the worst shift
Someone is working Sunday night, the holiday, or the 5am open. They are having a different day than you.
Half an hourUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Be the one who says the obvious thing
In most rooms somebody is being talked over and everyone can see it. Saying so out loud costs you one sentence and changes the room.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet