Whether We Want to Call the Idea Speed Friending or Speed Dating, It Is One Idea to Explore—However, Questions Get Raised!

 

By Kendall Worth

 

 

Readers of my BLOG may remember my earlier BLOG post:
Here

In that earlier post, (Linked above) I advertised an upcoming Friend Speed Dating event that took place on July 11th. In today's BLOG post, I am bringing you a report on how this event went and, more importantly, looking at what we can learn from the experience through a Social Prescribing lens.

When we look at the meaning and purpose of Speed Friending, there is a strong connection to the Social Prescribing Organization I am advocating to get up and running here in Halifax. At its heart, Speed Friending is about creating opportunities for people to meet, talk, make connections and potentially develop friendships. My proposed Social Prescribing Organization is also about creating opportunities for social connection and bringing people together. You can read more about my overall vision for this organization here: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/social%20prescription%20organization.

 

Why is friendship important in the first place? This BLOG post Here, looks at the importance and meaning of having good friendships in our lives. These two BLOG posts, Here and Here, also help educate us about what can happen when people do not have friends and meaningful social connections in their personal lives.

This is where Speed Friending begins to fit into the larger Social Prescribing picture. There are various elements of the Social Prescribing Organization I am advocating for that could positively impact people's ability to develop friendships and have people to socialize with in their day-to-day lives. One major example is my proposal for one-on-one friendship and social support. One of the important benefits of having a trusted person in your life is that sometimes something happens that you need help or support with, but you may not feel comfortable talking about it in a group setting. One-on-one friendships can also be valuable when it comes to medical support, having someone to attend something with, and feeling safer and more supported while participating in the community.

Another element of my proposal is the Safe Socializing Hub. When I look back at my BLOG post about this idea, I see at least two ways it connects directly with Speed Friending. First, a Safe Socializing Hub could provide a welcoming venue for future Speed Friending events. Second, it could provide a regular location where social groups and people who meet through these activities could gather, socialize and continue building connections.

This brings us to another important part of my Social Prescribing proposal: Community Care. As I have discussed elsewhere on my BLOG, the Social Prescribing Organization is ultimately about working toward a better model of Community Care—one where social connection, friendship, peer support and people looking out for one another are recognized as important parts of community well-being.

That is why I believe Speed Friending is worth exploring through a Social Prescribing lens. I am not suggesting that one Speed Friending event can solve Social Isolation or that friendship can simply be prescribed. Rather, the idea is to create opportunities and supportive environments where people who might otherwise never meet can meet one another, begin conversations and potentially develop meaningful friendships. Speed Friending could therefore become one activity among many within a larger Social Prescribing Organization whose purpose is to help people become more socially connected in their everyday lives.

I recently sat down with one of the organizers of the July 11th event. During our conversation, we talked about the actual experience of the event, who attended, who we had hoped would attend but did not, and what could be done differently if another event is organized in the future.

One thing that came out of our conversation is that Speed Friending potentially has a role to play in reducing Social Isolation. Of course, one event like this is not going to completely solve the much larger problem of Social Isolation. However, Speed Friending can be one possible solution worth exploring.

 

At the same time, the experience of this event raises some important questions.

Question #1 – Considering That My Social Prescribing Organization Is Going to Serve All Ages, What Are the Benefits of People in Their 20s or 30s Having Friends Who Are 65 Years of Age and Older?

One of the original hopes for this event was to create more intergenerational connections. However, this was one area where we did not get the turnout we had hoped for.

The biggest surprise for the organizers was that they did not receive replies from seniors' organizations they contacted.

Timing may have been part of the problem. The flyers were edited, printed and ready for distribution only shortly before July 1st, while the event itself took place on July 11th. That gave the organizers a relatively short period of time to advertise the event. Had there been more time for promotion and outreach, perhaps more seniors and seniors' organizations could have become involved.

This raises a larger question for my proposed Social Prescribing Organization: Why should we encourage friendships between generations?

The organizer I spoke with gave an interesting answer based on her own lived experience:

"Upon my own experience of attending free meal places, as a millennial I enjoyed my conversations and the social time I spent with seniors who were regular diners. I found that I developed a unique friendship with them that resembled that of a family member. It felt safer. At the same time, it made me happy to see that my conversations with them were contributing to their well-being. I felt that it was unfortunate that there weren't opportunities in free meal organizations that would give clients the opportunity to develop that friendship beyond sharing meals."

 

I believe this is an important observation.

Intergenerational friendships can provide something different from friendships exclusively among people of the same age. Younger people may gain life experience, knowledge, perspective and a sense of connection from older friends. Older people may benefit from companionship, conversation, new perspectives and opportunities to remain socially connected to younger generations.

Most importantly, the benefits can go both ways.

From a Social Prescribing perspective, this raises the possibility of intentionally creating opportunities where people of different generations can meet based on common interests rather than assuming people should socialize only within their own age group.

 

Question #2 – Why Would a Religious Organization Refuse to Post the Event on Its Bulletin Board Unless We Changed the Name?

 

Another lesson from this event involved the words "Speed Dating."

Some people who were invited misunderstood the purpose of the event and believed that it was a romantic Speed Dating event. Organizers had to explain that the purpose was making new friendships—not finding romantic partners.

There was an even bigger issue when outreach was made to religious organizations.

When the organizer contacted a religious youth group, those responsible for the group said they would not post the event because it went against their religion. Another religious organization would not put the event poster on its bulletin board because the poster contained the word "Dating."

This raises an important question about language.

If the actual purpose of the event is friendship, perhaps calling future events simply "Speed Friending" would better communicate what the event is trying to accomplish.

The religious organizations' reaction may have resulted from interpreting the word "dating" in its usual romantic sense. Different religious communities can also have different teachings, expectations and comfort levels surrounding dating and relationships. Therefore, even though organizers knew this event was about friendship, the wording on the poster could understandably have communicated something different to someone seeing it for the first time.

From a Social Prescribing perspective, this is worth paying attention to. If we want events to be welcoming to people from different cultures, religions, ages and backgrounds, the language used to advertise an event matters.

 

Changing the name does not mean changing the purpose. In this case, Speed Friending may actually describe the purpose more accurately.

However, while we are talking about religion, another important issue needs to be considered through a Social Prescribing lens.

Looking back at this BLOG post here https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2026/01/it-is-not-too-early-to-start-talking.html, I believe there needs to be a clear boundary when it comes to religion and the Social Prescribing Organization I am proposing.

 A Social Prescribing Organization should not be in the business of encouraging people to attend church or participate in a particular religion as a solution to social isolation. There may certainly be people who find friendship, community, belonging and emotional support through a church or another faith community. For someone who already belongs to a religious community or who personally wants to explore one, that can be a meaningful source of social connection.

However, that choice needs to come from the individual.

Social Prescribing should be about helping people find social and community connections that are appropriate for their own interests, values, beliefs, comfort levels and circumstances. A person should not be made to feel that attending church, adopting religious beliefs or participating in religious activities is expected of them in order to receive opportunities for friendship and community connection.

This distinction is especially important if a Social Prescribing Organization is intended to serve people of all ages, cultures, religions and backgrounds—including people who do not practice any religion. Someone who is socially isolated deserves opportunities for friendship and belonging regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, follow another faith, are spiritual but not religious, or have no religious beliefs at all.

This does not mean religious organizations should be excluded from Social Prescribing. Quite the opposite: churches and other faith communities can be valuable community partners. They may have meeting spaces, volunteers, community meals, social activities and other resources that can help bring people together. They can also help spread the word about community events such as Speed Friending.

But partnership is different from religious recruitment.

A Social Prescribing Organization can work with a church to advertise a community event without telling participants that they should attend that church. It can welcome someone who happens to be religious without assuming religion is the answer to that person's social isolation. Likewise, it can respect the beliefs of a religious organization—such as understanding why the word "Dating" might create concerns—without requiring everyone participating in Social Prescribing to follow those religious beliefs.

This brings us back to what happened with the Speed Friending event.

Perhaps the lesson is bigger than simply deciding whether to use the words "Speed Dating" or "Speed Friending." It is about learning how to communicate and collaborate across different communities while maintaining appropriate boundaries. We can respect religious organizations and their beliefs, while at the same time ensuring that Social Prescribing remains welcoming and accessible to people regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of religious beliefs.

That is another reason why Speed Friending may be the better name moving forward. It clearly tells people what we are trying to accomplish: creating opportunities for people to meet one another, develop friendships, reduce social isolation and strengthen community connections.

Question #3 – What Is Important About the Fact That Some of Our Turnout Was Intercultural Exchange?

 Although we did not achieve as much intergenerational participation as hoped, something else happened that organizers were impressed by: intercultural exchange.

The people who attended included newcomers, a Muslim couple, two Chinese participants and people with different abilities.

After the event, some newcomers were looking to connect with local people who had more knowledge about community events and festivals.

That observation is especially interesting through a Social Prescribing lens. Social connection is not only about whether someone has somebody to talk to. For a newcomer, knowing someone locally can also help them learn about their community:

• Where are events happening? 
• Which festivals are free? 
• What activities are available? 
• Where can people go to meet others? 
• What opportunities exist that they might never hear about otherwise?

An event designed around friendship can therefore potentially become a form of community connection and intercultural exchange.

It can allow people who might otherwise never meet one another to sit down, have a conversation and discover something about each other's lives.

This also shows us something important about Social Prescribing: sometimes an event can produce a positive outcome that was not exactly the outcome organizers originally expected.

We wanted more intergenerational connection. Instead, one of the strongest outcomes was diversity and intercultural connection.

That should not be viewed as a failure. It should be viewed as something we learned from.

 

Question #4 – What Else Should We Consider When Thinking About Speed Friending Through a Social Prescribing Lens?

 There are several additional lessons from this experience.

The organizers themselves are a group that includes unemployed and underemployed people, as well as people who experience barriers to employment related to neurodiversity. This particularly includes women and gender-diverse persons.

The location of the event was near the Armdale Rotary. Nearby were Club Inclusion and the Greek Orthodox Church. In our discussion, we identified outreach to organizations in the immediate area as a missed opportunity.

This raises an important lesson for future events: community outreach needs time.

If another Speed Friending event happens, organizers could begin advertising much earlier and make a deliberate effort to reach seniors' organizations, disability organizations, newcomer organizations, religious and cultural communities, community centres and other groups whose members may benefit from opportunities to make new social connections.

But another question also needs to be asked.

Getting people into the same room is only the first step.

If two people meet at a Speed Friending event and enjoy talking to each other, what happens afterwards?

• Do they exchange contact information? 
• Do they feel comfortable contacting each other? 
• Are there opportunities for them to meet again? 
• Could future events provide information about free community activities they could attend together? 
• Could there be follow-up gatherings?

(Note - Assessing Funding for Fallow-up Speed Friending Events could also be a Barrier)   

Those above questions become especially important when we look at Speed Friending through a Social Prescribing lens.

The goal should not necessarily be to measure success only by how many people walk through the door. We should also be asking whether the event creates opportunities for meaningful and lasting social connection.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The organizer I met with is open to organizing another event.

If another event happens, one lesson from July 11th is already clear: call it Speed Friending, not Speed Dating.

Another lesson is to allow much more time for advertising and community outreach, particularly if the goal is to bring together people from different generations.

This experience also gives me something else to think about as I continue advocating for my proposed Social Prescribing Organization.

Could Speed Friending become one activity offered through such an organization?

Could people experiencing Social Isolation be connected with events like this—not because friendship can simply be "prescribed," but because people can be given opportunities and supportive environments where friendships have a chance to develop naturally?

Could we deliberately create opportunities for a person in their 20s to meet somebody in their 70s?

Could we create opportunities for newcomers and long-time Halifax residents to meet each other?

Could people with different abilities, cultures, employment situations and life experiences meet because they have something much more basic in common—they are looking for human connection?

Speed Friending by itself will not solve Social Isolation.

But the July 11th event showed that putting people who might otherwise never meet into the same room and giving them an opportunity to have a conversation can create connections.

The challenge moving forward is figuring out how we turn that first conversation into something that has the opportunity to continue.

And from a Social Prescribing lens, that may be the most important question of all.