The nonprofit organization Weave: The Social Fabric Project is bringing people together. Their Northwest Arkansas affiliate, Weaving NWA, hosted an event last month called Weave the People: Build It, Join It, geared toward matching local groups with people looking to join. Ozarks at Large's E.V. Beyers attended the event and offers this report.
At 5 p.m. on June 23, the Bloomhouse NWA is full of life. Employees arrange tables and chairs, musicians tune their instruments and early comers chat. They're all here for the same reason: to participate in Weaving NWA's event, Weave the People: Build It, Join It.
Attendees socialized, enjoyed a meal from Secondhand Smoke NWA, and listened to a live performance by Mar Larona. They also got to learn about local community groups including Vibe Tribe, Mend It, Ozark Folkways and Patio Crashers. As a local chapter of the national Weave: The Social Fabric Project, Weave NWA is seeking to connect locals with clubs, organizations and each other, combating the national loneliness epidemic.
"Weave addresses the crisis of connection in the United States. We look at how the society is really crumbling in terms of social trust, and we are looking at strategies on how we can create more human connection and build social trust, and really get to the heart of the social crisis of connection and loneliness epidemic."
This is Kristyn Feldman, the local community partnership manager for Weave: The Social Fabric Project. In addition to her work on these events, Feldman highlights the importance of NWA community associate April Kennedy, who works for Weave on the regional level. Because of Kennedy and Feldman's work, there's a wraparound project in NWA to focus on monthly community events, community-led coffee and conversation events, and thematic-based dialogues that are sparked by community members themselves.
"We also have our flagship annual program, which is called the Weaver Awards, which provides 20 $5,000 micro-grants for weavers, community builders who focus on human connection and building relationships."
At this Weave NWA monthly gathering, there are two ways to participate, either as a joiner or a builder. Mina Nguyen-Driver, a mom of two who moved with her family from Portland, Oregon to NWA four years ago, is looking for ways to make friends and meet people.
"I would love to find a group where, I think, all of the groups that I am hearing about where there's a sense of belonging. So that's 100% what I'm looking for, is that for people to feel a sense of belonging and feel like they can be their authentic selves and be part of a program or a group where they feel like, wow, this is my, this is my group. These are my people. And I feel like I can express and be who I am without any judgment."
This makes Nguyen-Driver a joiner, someone looking to connect with and join a group.
"So I think for me, personally, I love art and I love just pottery and fine arts. And so for me, anything that can incorporate mental health and art, and again, for people to feel a sense of belonging, they can be who they are without judgment. That's what I'm interested in."
Vince Cuellar is the founder of Patio Crashers, an organization designed to connect NWA singles face to face. This makes Cuellar a builder.
"What I see is that when you try, especially as a single dad, you go into a marketplace, you don't really know anybody. And you try to reach out and you try to go into those social networking groups that are already established. They just didn't work for me. And so what I was looking for is somebody that actually connects. Not so much associations where they trade text and memes all day on Facebook, but it's face to face, where you can look into somebody's eyes and you can feel what's going on with them and vice versa. And we found by bringing in some of the old games and things that I grew up on, right, family nights where you play spoons and you do cards and rummy and you do things like that, you tend to associate more and you tend to become friends. And those friends become long-term family that you didn't have before."
And Bethany Carter is a builder and a joiner, someone here to share her organization with others while also looking to join groups.
"I would love to hear about other groups in the community and what they're doing. And I also just started a nonprofit with a couple friends called Connect to Culture. And so we're trying to see ways we can also get out in the community and bring people together in Northwest Arkansas."
To attend Weave NWA's future events, check out their website at weavers.org/weaving-nwa/ and look at the community calendar, and stay tuned for July 8 when they announce the recipients of their annual Weaver Award grants.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
