To overcome disconnection— what if we walked together, instead of separately?
Imagine walking around your neighborhood — a place you’ve just moved to or one you have called home for years — and seeing the people around you but never fully knowing them. You already know the feeling. The barista who greets you every morning. The neighbor who has lived next door for decades. The person walking their dog that you see around the block. You nod, smile, maybe wave, but you don’t really know them.
Life happens fast. Work, errands, appointments — there is always something pressing. And in the midst of it, the simple act of connecting with the people around us often falls through the cracks.
That gap has a name: disconnection. And it’s everywhere. Only 30% of Americans know their neighbors beyond a casual level — even though nearly 80% say strong neighborhoods improve their quality of life. People want more connection. They just don’t have ways that make sense for them.
We need opportunities that fit with our lives. Acquaint Walks creates that opportunity. Nearly 6 in 10 adults in the US already walk for leisure every week. It’s the most common physical activity in the country. Across neighborhoods, parks, and trails, most of us walk alone or in the same small circles. All that walking, all those parks, all those people passing each other without ever really getting to know each other.
What if, for some of those walks, we walked together instead of separately?
What Acquaint Walks Look Like
People meet at a local park. The Acquaint app handles scheduling and pairing — walkers get matched into groups of 2–3 automatically. There are no hosts, and no expectations about what a “good” conversation looks like. Icebreakers are available if you want them, but everything is optional.
You walk. You converse, at your own pace. You listen. You are present in the moment.
That simplicity is intentional. As the Surgeon General recently put it, one of the most important things we can do for each other is show up and spend unstructured time together.
A recent Acquaint Walk — neighbors meeting on a local trail.
Acquaint has been doing exactly this for five years — over 30,000 hours of one-on-one conversations across 110 countries, with no facilitators and no curriculum. Everything we learned from that program — what helps people open up, what gets in the way, what makes connection feel natural — we applied to the design of Walks.
This is not networking or group therapy. It’s not a transaction or an event with an outcome. It’s time spent with people nearby, walking together instead of separately.
Why Walking Side by Side Changes Things
Walking side by side — conversation finds its own rhythm.
There’s something about walking side by side that makes conversation easier. You’re moving together, thoughts come and go naturally, and there’s less pressure to perform. Walking gives conversation a rhythm — pauses feel comfortable, topics shift on their own, and people tend to open up more than they expect to.
A Stanford study found that walking increases creative thinking and reduces mental rigidity, making conversation feel more fluid. The American Psychological Association has linked shared outdoor time to stronger social well-being and reduced stress.
“But we don’t need science to feel the difference. Walking has its own rhythm — one that makes starting a conversation easier, and letting it breathe even easier.”
Champions: An Early Way to Get Involved
What makes these walks possible isn’t a big program or a polished agenda. It’s people — neighbors, friends, community members — willing to help make space for others to show up.
That’s what a Champion does. A Champion is a volunteer who walks, tests the app, and helps get walks started in their area. The app is still in beta, and we need creative, community-minded people to help it get ready for wider release.
As a Champion, you would:
- Download the Acquaint app and use it to schedule walks (we’ll walk you through it)
- Help get walks started in King County parks with fellow volunteers and the Acquaint team
- Get to know and be part of the Acquaint team, and our community of Walks Champions
- Recruit friends, coworkers, or local organizations
- Show up consistently so others feel welcome doing the same
- Tell us about your experience — we love honest feedback, and if anything is off or confusing, we want to hear about it
Champions help open the door — so others feel welcome walking in.
This is a neighbor-to-neighbor role. No mandatory qualifications, and Champions can be completely new to Acquaint. What matters is a willingness to show up with a steady presence.
Who This Is For
You might enjoy being a Champion if you:
- Want to connect more often than you currently do with new people
- Want to challenge yourself to have conversations with people you normally wouldn’t
- Are already involved in a community — formally or informally
- Love spending time outdoors
- Prefer low-pressure ways of contributing
- Believe that showing up still matters, even when there’s no obvious outcome
Champions come from all walks of life. You could be anyone — what matters is that you’re willing to show up.
You don’t need facilitation training, a big personality, great communication skills, a specific schedule, or prior experience with Acquaint.
Why We’re Inviting Champions Now
The desire for connection is already there — so is the walking.
More than 90% of people in the US say they want to volunteer, but only 1 in 4 actually do — the most common reason? Time.
Walking is something most people are already doing. The desire to volunteer, the desire for more neighborhood connection, and the fact that millions are already out walking every week — we haven’t seen anyone else link these together. That’s the opportunity.
We’re surrounded by people we don’t know. Champions help open the door — showing that connecting with your neighbors can be as simple as going for a walk together.
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Take the Next Step
There’s no long application. No hard commitment upfront. You can express interest, learn more about the role, and decide from there. The rest unfolds one walk at a time.
Drop your information here and we’ll keep you updated.
Sources: CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 504 (2024); Rocket Mortgage National Neighbor Survey (2026); Stanford Center on Longevity; AmeriCorps/U.S. Census Bureau (2023). Acquaint is a nonprofit building infrastructure for human connection. Learn more at acquaint.org.