Contact a senior center in your area, a YMCA, library or church or home with facilities for group meetings. Share your plan, and find out how they communicate with their attendees.

Here’s a sample blurb to invite folks to the groups: NEW GROUP! Friendship and Conversation Corner is a discussion group aimed at dispelling and combating loneliness. We tell stories about our lives and focus on improving our abilities to share wholeheartedly. We connect better when we bring our best selves, open up and develop generosity, empathy and respect. 

At the first meeting, have name tags available and a marker to greet the attendees. Go around the room with one-minute introduction: present situation, past life summary, future plans. Pick a topic to focus on. Start with something everyone can comment on, like what a best friend taught you or how a purpose in life challenged you and brought out your strengths.

When we respect one another and develop confidence in ourselves, we can cultivate meaningful connections. In this group, we reveal our authentic selves by sharing stories from our lives and our personal learning experiences.

We look back at the influences from parents, siblings, neighbors, friends and enemies, trials and tribulations, successes and failures. We combat loneliness by encouraging a sense of belonging and self-awareness. We grow comfortable in sharing our point of view and focusing on challenges we faced and commonality we share in dealing with life’s ups and downs.