Introducing the Smile Zone

Aim

The Smile Zone’s underlying goal is to make people smile. Although this may sound trivial, psychological research demonstrates the numerous benefits of smiling, and in particular the way in which smiling releases hormones which induce positive feelings and foster a sense of connection. The purpose of these ventures is to reduce loneliness and improve the overall sense of connectedness in the local community.

Research indicates that those who identify as lonely do not automatically mimic smiles as their non-lonely counterparts do, which has been implicated in the perpetuation of loneliness. The SmileZone aims to counteract this by encouraging people to smile, thus retraining their brains and cultivating the positive emotions associated with a sense of connectedness.

The Smile Zone Project’s overarching aim is to lessen loneliness one smile at a time, by means of establishing spaces explicitly for evoking smiles. These spaces are intended to counter loneliness by prompting smiling and the positive emotions and behaviours associated with this which foster connectedness.

Smile Zone pilot locations

The Smile Zone Project’s overarching aim is to lessen loneliness one smile at a time, by means of establishing spaces explicitly for evoking smiles. These spaces are intended to counter loneliness by prompting smiling and the positive emotions and behaviours associated with this which foster connectedness.

• Mobile Smile Zone located at CQUniversity Rockhampton
  Building 65 G.27, Bruce Highway, Rockhampton.
• Rockhampton Base Hospital, 2 Canning St, Rockhampton
  (location on hold due to QLD Health Covid protocols).

Smile-o-meter

A ‘smile-o-meter’ will be established to count the number of people who engage with SmileZone stations. The results from this meter will be shown monthly, and an overall tally for the year will be calculated to indicate that ‘This year we had __ smiles at the SmileZone’.