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Social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic call for maintaining a distance of 6 feet between yourself and other people.

A campaign launched in partnership with the Detroit Police Athletic League and U:Link — a collective of governing agencies at seven Michigan public universities including the University of Michigan — wants to ensure that the physical distance does not translate to social isolation.

The campaign, called 6˚ of Separation, encourages people to commit to checking in on six people on the 6th, 16th and 26th of each month through the end of June.

“Our community needs timely, factual information we can trust as well as safe and caring human contact during this unprecedented test of our willingness to love our neighbors as ourselves,” said LaSonia Forte, associate director of state outreach in the Office of the Vice President for Government Relations.

Forte said the campaign launched in April after a March conference call between the Detroit PAL and U:Link members, along with Ashleigh Johnson of Poverty Solutions, Jade Burns, assistant professor of health behavior & biological sciences in the School of Nursing, and Diana Seales, a Ph.D. candidate who works at the Ginsberg Center and teaches in the Semester in Detroit program.

To date, more than 1,000 people have visited the Detroit PAL website to pledge to connect with six people three times a month.