Come Together x Especially Everyone Week
A week of regional events addressing loneliness and isolation through music and the arts.
A joint initiative of the Foundation for Social Connection Action Network, Artist for Action, and Especially Everyone
In collaboration with Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County · SocialRx · Connecticut Collaborative to End Loneliness · G4D Productions · Pathways · and more
As more of life runs on technology, how do we stay human? The future won't be shaped by algorithms alone. It will be shaped by how we choose to stay connected. The arts have always been where that connection lives.
ABOUTA growing movement for social connection through music and the arts is expanding access to the arts as an antidote to isolation and a path to belonging — and this week brings it home. For one week, leaders, organizations, artists, and neighbors across the region come together to build healthier, more connected communities, showing what's possible when music and the arts are understood as essential to social health, economic vitality, and human flourishing.
We invite you to build this with us. What does connection look like to you?
OCT 5–9
x Especially Everyone Week
Come Together Events
Produced with our partners: fireside chats, working sessions, connection hackathons, and activations at Come Together locations.
CENTRAL THEMES OF THE WEEK INCLUDE:
- The Economic Case: Social Connection, the Creative Arts, and Public Policy
- Redefining Access: The Architecture of Belonging
- Neurodiversity 101
- Destigmatizing Mental Health
- Arts in Health + Social Prescribing
- Independent Venues as Third Spaces
- Connection in the Workplace + the Age of AI
- Service Above Self: Civic Engagement, Trust, and Deeper Connection to Our Communities
- and more shaping up
Voices in the week
- Andrew MacPherson (Foundation for Social Connection Action Network)
- Chris Appleton (SocialRx)
- Peter Tesei (former First Selectman of Greenwich; CEO, Pathways)
- Mark Barden (Co-Founder, Sandy Hook Promise & Artist for Action)
- Jon Dindas (Founder/CEO, G4D Productions)
- Joel Berman "Bermano" (artist)
...and more being confirmed. Full program coming soon. Get involved!
Ecosystem events
Two ways these take shape.
Partner-activated: hosted by orgs and individuals across our partners' networks, healthcare, arts and culture, day programs, inclusive initiatives, and beyond, workshops, sound circles, drum circles, community art, music + connection sessions.
Community-led: the grassroots heartbeat of the week, local businesses, instructors, artists, musicians, restaurants, schools, community groups, and neighbors hosting a walk, a workout, a coffee hour, an art night, a dinner, a class, or something completely their own.
Throughout the week
Come Together with The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus
OCT 10
The 2026 Especially Everyone Fall Experience
The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY
World Mental Health Day + World Inclusion Day
Click to learn more, purchase tickets, or get involved with: especiallyeveryone.org/10-10-at-the-cap
Whoever you are — healthcare leader, mental health advocate, artist, musician, educator, community builder, cultural leader, business owner, changemaker, or neighbor — there is a place for you in this week.
ADD YOUR EVENT TO THE WEEK
Host a workshop, class, sound circle, mixer, or performance — anywhere in the region, October 5–9. It goes on the calendar as part of the week.
Host a gathering
HOST FORMArtists + musicians perform, run a workshop, teach a class
ARTIST FORMBring a topic the region needs to talk about
TOPIC FORM
COLLABORATE ON COME TOGETHER
Deeper involvement in the week and October 10: co-produce a session or fireside, activate at a Come Together location, help shape the week.
Partner with us steering the week, Greenwich activations, October 10
PARTNER WITH USSponsor or partner co-present, underwrite a session, make the moment with an activation
jill@especiallyeveryone.org
VOLUNTEER — civic engagement, event support, spreading the word
VOLUNTEER FORMHave another idea? — Bring it. This is built together.
jill@especiallyeveryone.orgA stronger local ecosystem: cross-sector partners connected around a shared cause and to each other
New collaborations that carry beyond the week
The arts as essential social infrastructure
Bridging Arts + Health: advancing social prescribing
Local proof of an emerging national field
Momentum to inform policy and shape how connection gets valued and funded
Every gathering, every partner who shows up, is building toward a region — and a country — where connection isn't an afterthought. There's a place for you in this. Let's COME TOGETHER and build this.