What started as a walk and a coffee in February 2025 for eight men who wanted to find deeper connection and friendship, open up and discuss meaningful things relating to their emotions, relationships and personal challenges, has **now grown to 1,600 men across the city.** 

And we’ve got a huge amount to thank the r/London community for - without your support we wouldn’t be where we are today. A huge number of our members have found us from Reddit. 

So **tonight at 6.30pm our community will be answering any questions you might have** \- including me (Tom, co-founder), Dan (other co-founder) and some of our incredible members. 

We’ve had some huge highlights in the past 18 months, including: 

* Over 300 events hosted - anything from Curry Clubs, Pizza Clubs, board game nights, yoga, men’s circles, hikes and retreats, run clubs
* Setting our community values of respect, authenticity, growth, ambition and connection
* Appointing a leadership group called the Connectors, 18 men who volunteer their time to set-up events and support our members
* Partnering with an organisation called Beder and providing therapy to members of our community
* Being called the ‘men’s group solving loneliness in the capital’ by the Times and the ‘anti-manosphere community’ by the Independent
* Meeting the Lord Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and discussing loneliness and the challenges of finding connection in the capital
* Marching in Pride London last weekend

We’ve also had some challenges, which we’re really keen to discuss:

* Finding a way to make the community sustainable without charging everyone for access to it - we have an optional membership for those that want to give back, but it barely covers our costs
* The challenging stigma of ‘men’s groups’ (thanks, manosphere!) and how we’re working hard to change that
* Challenging feedback from individuals (including on Reddit) who haven’t had great experiences with the group or how it’s run

We’ve always run the community as openly as possible - accountability is so important to us. 

And we’re frequently being asked to contribute to bigger, societal conversations about loneliness, isolation and meaningful relationships. 

So ask us anything - whether it’s about men’s mental health, what we’ve learnt about connection, the reason why we set it up, what the group's favourite pizza is - no question is off limits. 

Thanks

Tom

IG: [www.instagram.com/shouldertoshouldercommunity](http://www.instagram.com/shouldertoshouldercommunity)

Website: [shoulder.mn.co](http://shoulder.mn.co) 

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