Kim Samuel – Founder and Chief Architect
Kim Samuel is a leading voice in the global movement for belonging. She is the founder of the Belonging Forum, a global research, advocacy, and action organization that works to heal the crisis of social isolation and build belonging around the world. She is also a Research Fellow at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and an Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.
The Belonging Forum – formerly the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness – convenes the Global Symposium on Belonging, bringing together the belonging movement’s leading thinkers and changemakers, as well as the Samuel Scholars in Belonging program, which has supported more than 100 researchers and practitioners advancing solutions around the world. In 2025, the Belonging Forum also launched the world’s first Charter for Belonging, a set of principles and practices to guide action from governments, businesses, nonprofits, and other institutions.
In addition, the Belonging Forum oversees the Belonging Barometer, a first-of-its-kind, solutions-focused annual study on the state of belonging in the United Kingdom, which draws on survey data from 10,000 participants and will soon launch in additional geographies, including South Africa and Canada.
The Belonging Forum partners with a range of leading organizations, including the Misipawistik Cree Nation, Partners in Health, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, the Graça Machel Trust, and the Data-Driven EnviroLab at the University of North Carolina, among many others.
Kim is the author of On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation (Abrams Press 2022), an exploration of the crisis of social isolation and humanity’s right to belong. She is currently working on her second book, about belonging and faith.
Kim serves on the executive committee and board of Special Olympics International, as well as the disability rights advisory committee and the London and Canada committees of Human Rights Watch. She is a regular speaker at educational institutions including the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics, Harvard Law School, and McGill University, as well as organizations including the World Economic Forum, Human Rights Watch, Special Olympics International, and Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement.
Kim is also a frequent commentator in outlets including the The Globe and Mail, The Times of London, The Independent, The Telegraph, Scientific American, Time Magazine, The Boston Globe, USA Today, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Psychology Today.
