It started on a playground swing.
During the pandemic, our founder Eliana Fieldman felt profoundly alone. She was sitting on a swing at the playground when she found out school had shut down for three days. Three days turned into two weeks. Two weeks turned into a year.
When schools reopened, something settled. But Eliana noticed that for most teens, the disconnection did not end when the restrictions did. In many ways, it deepened. And technology made it harder to recover.
Loneliness taught me that connection is not passive. It is something we practice.
She started reading about social health almost obsessively. What she found was clear: teens are the loneliest generation on record, and the systems around them are not built to fix it. So she decided to build something herself.
Youth Connect CLE is the result. A nonprofit dedicated to helping Greater Cleveland teens find their people, their interests, and their place in this city. Starting with the Find Your Thing Fair this fall.