Our Story: loneliness affects everyone

As two founders with limited knowledge of the healthcare sector, we found the disparity within the seniors' housing sector to be baffling. We were touched by a CBC radio interview where the interviewee discussed the difficulties his mother faced in an assisted living arrangement, detailing the degradation of her mood and emotional state over time, ultimately leading to her premature death. On this quest to uncover the challenges of aging, the pain of loneliness kept on resurfacing. It affects 10% of adolescents and weighs down 42 million adults in America. We wanted to act and help the isolated to take consistent steps to rise above this problem!.

Since February 2020, Anna has received feedback from over 70 seniors who participated in beta-testing groups. Their feedback drove 2 significant rounds of back-end software and user experience iterations. Anna now serves 6 active seniors from the initial focus groups and has taken a user through multiple enlightening journeys leading up to and during COVID-19. Her engagement has successfully altered the negative behavior of an early adopter in one month. The venture has built a partner network that consists of over 20 key seniors’ health and community hubs in the province of Alberta in Canada. Our unique alliances resulted in 6 pilot opportunities, and we are accelerating our efforts to reach the lonely in the U.S. and the U.K. The surge in community support grants Anna access to trained community heroes and helps Anna to reach and empower 5000 seniors in the province by the end of 2020. Anna was published in the Apple App Store in April 2020.

If you're a senior or just suffer from a bit of loneliness and isolation, come talk to us, at the least you would have enjoyed a conversation. We'll see if we can help. ​ And if you want to help build something greater than our individual selves, we're growing our volunteer team, executive team, an advisory group, so come talk to us! ​ It is a huge challenge! Get involved in your community and communities abroad buy spreading awareness and try to reduce the stigma. Anna might not be the place you want to help or want to receive help from and that all right, but it's important you get the help you need to strive. ​ Below are other initiatives with voices that spans the world feel free to have a look: Campaign to End Loneliness Men's Shed Reach out to your local churches, community centers, and activity centers Know that you're not alone and we can get through this together!