Blog
An Incredible Year for Social Prescribing in the U.S. and an Exciting Future
December 29, 2025
LOOKING AHEAD
As the New Year approaches, we find ourselves both looking ahead and reflecting on a truly tremendous and impactful year for the social prescribing movement in the United States.
We are deeply grateful that our collective efforts are beginning to pay off in so many meaningful ways. More U.S. health care professionals are embracing the essential role of social connection, the arts, nature, service, and movement in improving the health of patients of all ages. Increasing numbers of health insurers are supporting social prescribing, more universities are integrating it into their campuses, and a growing number of medical societies and professional groups are launching their own social prescribing initiatives.
Best of all, thousands upon thousands of people—across all ages and communities—are benefiting from new social connections and the healing power of greater access to the arts, the outdoors, opportunities to help others, and movement.
Looking ahead, we believe 2026 will be even more impactful as our community prioritizes the movement's key needs and launches new efforts across the country. We are profoundly thankful for the dedicated practitioners and partners who are committed to building on this momentum so that we can reach more patients in more communities across America.
Social Prescribing USA (SPUSA) is honored to play a significant role in championing this movement, its leading organizations, and its visionary leaders. We are especially grateful to our new donors in 2025, whose generosity helped make this progress possible.
And we are just getting started. In the year ahead, we plan to host convenings, enhance our educational offerings, expand physician outreach, and work with key leaders to help define a national research agenda for the field.
You can help make this vision a reality by making an end-of-year contribution. With your support, SPUSA will be stronger—and our collective movement will be even more impactful in the New Year. Please use this link to make your year-end contribution.
Thank you for your support and for everything you are doing to grow social prescribing in the U.S. and beyond. We look forward to continuing this important work together—and to seeing you in the New Year!
Happy New Year! We look forward to a very promising 2026!!
The core team at Social Prescribing USA: Alan Siegel, Adam Hirschfelder, Ivory Rose, Jennifer Kuo, Lennie Knowlton, Serena Shapard, and Anurag Lende.
LOOKING BACK AT 2025
Social Prescribing USA (SPUSA) is proud to be at the center of this country’s movement, and we are looking back on a critical year of progress
for our organization and the movement.
We started the year supporting a significant gathering at UJA Federation New York, which has set the stage for tremendous momentum for the practice in NYC.
SPUSA celebrated International Social Prescribing Day in March by leading a State of the Field webinar with several leaders in the field, and helped to support other efforts across the country.
Benjamin Goldberg Foundation, in coordination with SPUSA, released a guide on creating local social prescribing summits.
SPUSA, along with Julia Hotz and Dr. Ardeshir Hashmi, reached 12 million listeners with a story on social prescribing on NPR Morning Edition, producing strong interest in the movement. It was one of many significant media articles on social prescribing this year.
SPUSA launched a reformatting of our Community of Practice, to better serve and network local projects and initiatives across the United States.
In October, we hosted the first U.S. Social Prescribing Leadership Summit, bringing together more than 50 leaders from across the country to define a vision for how we can work together to build a robust social prescribing movement in this country. The results of the Summit were very significant, and we will release them next month. We are thankful to the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and Resonance Philanthropies for their support of this important event.
SPUSA participated in the first session ever on social prescribing at the Foundation for Social Connection’s Conference.
SPUSA was awarded a significant Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award from the National Academy of Medicine to run a social prescribing pilot at Kaiser Permanente (in Oakland and Berkeley, California), which will start in early 2026. It will be the first pilot of its kind at Kaiser, one of the country’s leading integrated healthcare companies. The John A. Hartford Foundation has provided additional support for the pilot. Stay tuned for more information on this exciting pilot shortly!
Our Digital Platform has grown 200%, including e-mail and social media!
We have started our own strategic planning process to better support the movement. Once we are done, we will announce our strategic priorities.
We are working to expand our work and make it sustainable. In this light, we plan to professionalize our staff in 2026.
This year has also been an incredibly exciting year for social prescribing
overall in the U.S., including these highlights:
Building on the great work of the Massachusetts Cultural Council in its statewide arts prescription efforts, Franklin, MA became the first municipality in the country to launch an arts prescription program.
Art Pharmacy has continued to be a leader in the arts prescription field through its expansion around the country.
Great new social prescribing pilots are in the works, from the Bronx to the University of Michigan in a range of settings.
A series of gatherings this past Fall focused on arts and health in the New York City Area, including the Creating Healthy Communities at NJPAC, several Jameel Arts and Health Lab gatherings during the UN General Assembly (including one with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) and, finally, the National Organization for Arts in Health annual conference.
Exciting breaking December news in Virginia, with a new policy from the Medical Society of Virginia to support social prescribing, driven by medical students at the University of Virginia. Efforts are underway to scale this policy in other States.
The release of 23 case studies in social prescribing by the University of Florida EpiArts Lab.
The year also saw the release of the WHO Report on Social Connection, which emphasized the imperative to use social prescribing in health systems and to recognize its significance in connecting with our communities.
Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad and team released a big study on Social Connection in America
Social Prescribing USA is looking forward to a promising 2026 to continue our incredible momentum!
New pilot at the University of Michigan
