Connection at a Critical Life Stage:
Changing the Trajectory for Adolescents and Young Adults
Adolescence and early adulthood are a high-stakes window for social development. Young people are forming their first adult friendships, learning how to manage conflict and repair, and building the confidence to belong. When loneliness takes hold during this period, it can shape expectations and habits that carry forward.
Today’s context makes these age groups especially vulnerable. Many teens and adults in their twenties spend substantial time in screen-based social life, where comparison, status anxiety, and social pressure can be constant. At the same time, it is harder to spend time together in person: fewer groups to belong to, fewer shared places to hang out, and a less predictable path into adulthood—school-to-work transitions, housing, and financial independence. The risk is not only that young people feel lonely now, but that isolation becomes a default pattern.
This investment focus supports interventions designed specifically for adolescents and Gen Z adults (under age 30), with an emphasis on social development and lasting habits of healthy connection. Examples could look like:
- Hands-on projects with ownership and voice: roles where young people shape the work—at school, on campus, in training programs, or in the workplace—so showing up matters, contribution is visible, and working together builds trust.
- Cohorts during key transitions: programs that stay with young people through moments when connection often drops. This could include life experiences like navigating foster care, the juvenile justice system, or housing instability, as well as more routine but formative transitions like starting high school, entering college or trade school, beginning an apprenticeship, starting a first job, or moving to a new city.
- Peer groups that meet regularly: consistent circles, teams, clubs, or group programs that help people feel less alone in what they’re going through and create a dependable place to be known—especially for young adults who no longer have school-based community.
- Relationship skills that can be practiced: opportunities to build skills like listening, conflict navigation, repair, collaboration, and teamwork in real settings (not just lessons).
- Bridges from online to in-person: guided pathways that help people translate digital interaction into face-to-face relationships through recurring meetups or shared commitments.
- Mentorship and intergenerational ties: coaches, mentors, and near-peer guides who can offer steadiness, widen networks, and help young people stay engaged when life gets hard.
- Designs tailored to different pressures and ways people connect: because one size does not fit all, and these patterns can vary by gender, identity, and context.
- For youth navigating intense social comparison and appearance pressure, spaces that make it easier to build supportive friendships.
- For youth who connect best through shared activity, programs built around teams, projects, outdoors, or making things—supported by mentorship and clear expectations for how people treat one another.
- For young adults who feel stuck or left behind, efforts that combine connection with purpose—work pathways, shared projects, or group problem-solving—alongside practical support.
- For youth and young adults who experience stigma or exclusion, spaces that are affirming and safe, with strong peer and adult support.
Ashanti Branch, founder and CEO of Powered grantee Ever Forward, leads a young men's group.
While many programs for teens and young adults create opportunities for interaction, we are interested in efforts that explicitly address loneliness and social disconnection—clear about what problem they are solving, for whom, and how they will know whether participants are becoming more connected over time. The aim is not simply to relieve loneliness or isolation in the moment, but to change trajectories, so that young people build the skills, confidence, and relationships that make connection more likely across adulthood.
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