Social Kompas

Lina is a 67-years old Dane. Last year, she went from a 20-years routine in a 9-5 job as a secretary in a high school to retirement. From one day to the other Lina had to structure her day herself and lost the cheerful contact with dozens of students who used to pop into her office every day. For the first time in her life, Lina was lonely. It almost felt like she had lost her identity.

Lina is not an isolated case. Retirement comes with a high risk of loneliness which may result in severe mental and physical health issues. Initiatives targeted at fighting this issue often focus on offering activities and social gatherings to retirees. Unfortunately, they miss out to tackle a major driver of loneliness: a lack of purpose. Besides, those initiatives often target retirees rather than soon-to-be-retired people. The chosen means are curing rather than preventing.

With Social Kompas, we aim at preventing the problem before it even occurs. We target soon-to-be-retired and invite them to become a volunteer rather than just a member of any leisure group. People like Lina have years of valuable job experience and skills. By matching those skills with suitable volunteer jobs we empower Lina and with her an increasingly bigger proportion of our society to give back and continue feeling needed when transitioning from a 9-5 job to retirement.