What started as a post looking for company on an evening walk is quickly turning into a mini women’s movement in Brampton.

“Let’s make a girls walking group and encourage each other to walk? Who’s interested?” reads a March 30 post by Brampton’s Kulpreet Kaur on the neighborhood networking website Nextdoor.

Kaur said she made the “random” post while struggling to get motivated for a stroll, and was stunned to receive around 100 messages.

“I posted and boom, the next day I had numerous likes and so many requests,” she told INsauga.com.

Now affectionately dubbed “The Women’s Gang,” Kaur says the first meet up was just with one other walker, but the group has grown to dozens of interested Brampton women looking for an outlet. The group has since had other walks and meet-ups, with plans for a community clean-up and coffee shop chat in the future.

“It’s (about) walking, but I found women were looking more for meet-ups, just to talk,” Kaur said, saying the gatherings have been a chance for women to ask each other questions, share worries, chat and vent.

“Most of the conversation was around midlife crisis, I would say,” Kaur said with a laugh, adding that many members are becoming “empty nesters” with grown children and busy husbands or partners.

Women’s health advocates have called for a national strategy to combat loneliness after a 2024 National Institute on Ageing survey found 43 per cent of Canadians aged 50 years and older are at risk of social isolation, and up to 59 per cent have experienced loneliness.

The Women’s Age Lab & Women’s College Hospital called it an “epidemic of loneliness” in a report, with Canada ranking as the loneliest of 11 comparable developed nations. Reports of older adults feeling isolated more than doubled in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says.

The report calls on the federal government to implement a national strategy to fight loneliness, to promote the importance of connection through awareness campaigns, measure loneliness and increase knowledge through research, and expand strategies and programs to increase investment in useful interventions.

As for The Women’s Gang, Kaur said combating loneliness wasn’t her inspiration, but after speaking with some of the ladies, was “surprised how badly they were looking for someone to start something like this.”

With the group growing faster than expected, Kaur has put meet-ups on hold until she can better manage events and requests.

“It’s actually growing every day,” Kaur said, adding that she hopes to find a local coffee shop to sponsor meet-ups and hope to plan an event on Mother’s Day weekend.


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