Day 2 of my road trip to the east coast found me at a national chain restaurant for lunch where I noticed the majority of tables occupied by only one person.  There are times where I like some time alone, however there are many times when I’m travelling I would enjoy having a conversation with someone new over a meal.

That’s why I’m intrigued with The Living Rooms project Camerados, a non-profit that is committed to ending social isolation through cups of tea.

Crumbs and stripes of jam are left behind on plates, sitting on a polka-dot tablecloth. Clusters of people lounge and chat on sofas and armchairs sprayed with floral patterns or stripes. The space is cozy and unpretentious; it invites plopping down and staying put for a while.  Last spring they launched their first location in Blackpool, England.  Two locations are slated to open in New York City this winter: one in Manhattan, and one in Brooklyn.

Maff Potts, the founder of Camerados spent decades working in social services, and noticed a common denominator underlying the push to connect folks with concrete services: a cloud of loneliness and a harried pace. The Living Rooms offer a model where “You can come sit all day,” he adds. “It’s up to you to engage with it as much as you want.”

Camerados is teaming up with Kindness.org, a platform dedicated to encouraging people to do nice things for each other, to bring the Living Room concept to New York. This site, which launched this fall, invites users to tackle some easy challenges: leaving a sketch or hand-drawn card for someone to find, or dropping a copy of a favorite book, hoping that a stranger will connect with the story held in its pages.

Kindness.org recently conducted a literature review of 21 studies examining kindness—many of which didn’t stand up well to scrutiny. “Our research suggests performing acts of kindness will not change your life, but might help nudge it in the right direction,” Curry said in a statement. Lindsey says she’s hoping to conduct more research in the future, in an effort to tease out how kindness might have long-term reverberations.