#onesummit

Waiting in the lobby, twenty-one children and their parents listen to Adam La Reau, Founder of One Summit, welcome them to the Climb for Courage at Central Rock Gym in Watertown.  The Climb for Courage event marks the beginning of One Summit’s mentorship program; at this event, children fighting cancer are paired with their U.S. Navy SEAL mentor for a day of indoor rock-climbing.  

As the children climb the stairs, thunderous clapping erupts.  The children start their walk through a tunnel of Navy SEALs, getting high-fives, looking nervous yet excited for their adventure.  Gazing up at the tall rock-walls that surround them, the children wait as Adam pairs them up one by one with their mentor; once they meet, the Navy SEALs give their Little Warriors One Summit backpacks.  

The backpacks hold rock climbing gear and the mentors immediately help their kids put on their new harness and helmet.  The backpack also includes other mementos, like a dog-tag engraved with their name, a camouflage baseball cap, and a One Summit Challenge Coin engraved with One Summit’s logo “Perseverance, Courage and Strength”.  The mentors and mentees ask each other ice-breaker questions, answering who their heroes are and what superpower they would most like to have.  The partners are now ready to climb.

The One Summit mission is to help children with cancer build courage and self-confidence, which promotes a foundation for resilience as they battle their disease.  The objective of the Climb for Courage is to teach children skills that are transferable to their lives and will empower them in their fight against cancer.  The rock-climbing event shows Little Warriors new ways to approach challenges; they learn lessons in goal setting, courage, overcoming set-backs and changing direction, and working as a team to accomplish a goal.  

The Navy SEALs coach the Little Warriors; providing unwavering support to their mentees as they work together to reach their mutual goal; the team goal is unique to each partnership.  One Little Warrior said, “My Navy SEAL mentor told me it was okay to fall, but to keep trying. He said ‘It’s okay buddy, you can do it!’ Then I got to the top and was confident.”  Without the fear of falling, this child was able to conquer his fears and climb to the top of the rock wall.  The Navy SEALs inspire the children to face their fears, one child commented, “I was scared at the bottom, my Navy SEAL buddy helped me overcome my fears by being an awesome hero.”  

After the event was over, parents and children were reunited.  The children gushed to their parents about their rock climbing experience.  One parent remarked, "My son was so proud that he passed his goals, one of my sons said this was the best day of my life.”  Another parent added, “My daughter learned to trust her mentor by knowing that he wouldn't let her fall.”  The protection of their mentors allowed the Little Warriors to be totally fearless.  That parent continued, “This was one of the best days she has ever had. She will have memories of this day forever."

The confidence, pride and courage displayed in each child grew significantly as each goal was met.  Determination, exhilaration and joy emanated throughout the room and was felt by everyone within the rock-wall enclosure.  Following the event, mentors and mentees hung out with each other, reliving the excitement of the day, not wanting the experience to end.  

Dear CBC Manitoba,

Last night, I watched the evening news and felt greatly disappointed by your misrepresentation of Our Summit: LOCAL Racial Inclusion Summit. At no point did any organizers describe our gathering as a protest, and it is frustrating to see media repeatedly pit the two Summits against each other. Leading up to Our Summit, members of the Winnipeg community had offered critique of Mayor Brian Bowman’s ONE: National Summit on Racial Inclusion. It is our role as community members to hold government and community leaders accountable. It is not a merely a protest, but a fulfilling of our responsibility to have expressed our frustration with the lack of representation in the speakers, planners and facilitators from local, grassroots organizations working to end racism; to have pointed out that the Canadian Museum of Human Rights is not a neutral space for many people whom racism most directly impacts in our city; and to have wanted a more accessible and inclusive event. While it is important to hear from experts and to participate in comparative analyses, the discussion is not complete without a balance of representation from local and global, grassroots and institutional leaders. The hope is that this feedback from citizenry will change how the Mayor’s office organizes future events. We share Mayor Brian Bowman’s perspective that both Summits are valuable opportunities for conversation. Our Summit was planned to give people an alternative, one which addressed some of the criticisms made about ONE Summit. It is not an either/or situation; we needed both ONE Summit AND Our Summit to have happened, and hopefully in the future, we will see the participants from these two events coming together. On Thursday, September 17, 2015, participants of Our Summit heard from speakers from Winnipeg’s First Nations, Chinese, Muslim, White, Filipino and Metis communities. After Opening Prayer and Song, we began the evening with a Welcoming Activity where everyone attending could meet and hear the story of a stranger. During the hour-long Open Space discussion that followed, we crowdsourced topics and facilitators in order to share the power inherent in decision-making and speaking with Our Summit participants. 13 groups formed around topics that were most important for the people present, which resulted in solution-focused discussions on  racism in the following areas: nutrition and food security, Indigenous and newcomer youth relations, missing and murdered Indigenous men and women, moving past our racial mistakes, Child and Family Services, jobs and employment, systemic racism, using dialogue to improve relations, water and Shoal Lake 40, kids growing up in a corrupt world, media representation, uniting humanity harmoniously, and Employment Income Assistance. The Open Space discussions ended with each person reflecting and sharing an action that they would take toward ending racism. An example of a solution was the bringing together of church congregations from the north and south ends of Winnipeg. We know that people want to build relationships, but sometimes it’s challenging to figure out how to create opportunities. The great news is that Aboriginal Youth Opportunities and 1justcity have been talking all summer and Meet Me at the Bell Tower and 1justcity will be hosting a Feast with Friends on Friday, October 23, 2015 at 6pm, which will bring together people from congregations in the north and south ends of the city, as well as community members from the North End and all around Winnipeg. As always, Meet Me at the Bell Tower is a free community event that welcomes people from all walks of life. People can find more details about Feast with Friends here: https://www.facebook.com/events/394310904113050/. We ended the evening with a march to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Crucially, before we left Oodena Circle, one of the organizers shared that we were marching in a spirit of collaboration with Mayor Brian Bowman’s ONE: National Summit on Racial Inclusion; and that we would best represent the change we hoped to see in our communities by demonstrating it for the people attending both summits, and most importantly, for the children in the crowd. We walked over in high spirits, having enjoyed a beautiful double rainbow, and now walking to moving drum music and a gorgeous sunset. We gathered at the entrance of the Museum, and we invited community members holding 13 Grandfather Rocks to come up and speak. They shared their discussions – their frustrations with racism, but more importantly, the solutions they see. Throughout the evening, we had the support of Manitoba Moon Voices and ACI Manitoba through Prayer, Song, and Drums. Thank you also to Aboriginal Youth Opportunities, Neechi Commons, Spirit Fusion, and many other groups for supporting the coordination of the event. We will be compiling the discussion notes and community's commitments to share publicly, and with the city’s Citizen Equity Committee. We hope that you’ll follow up on this story then.

Samedi 21 juin 2014. Nous voilà tous partis pour la capitale belge, cœur de l’Union Européenne. Une partie de la Team Paris s’engouffre dans le Thalys et profite du trajet pour étudier les premiers documents de la session avant de retrouver nos collègues nationaux à l’hôtel.

  Briefing, clefs de chambres, et c’est parti. Nous sommes en tout plus de 120 jeunes réunis à Bruxelles pour la première édition de ce ONE Summit européen. Tous ces jeunes ambassadeurs (ONE Youth Ambassadors pour les intimes) viennent d’Allemagne, d’Italie, des Pays-Bas, du Royaume-Uni, de Belgique, et bien sur de France. Heureusement qu’on parle anglais !

  Pour notre premier soir, nous nous retrouvons tous dans un restaurant pour faire connaissance avec nos homologues européens sous le signe de la collaboration, de la solidarité… avec un arrière-goût de coupe du monde. La soirée se termine d’ailleurs au pub pour la majorité des ambassadeurs (comme la majorité des soirs d’ailleurs). Fort heureusement, notre planning officiel intègre lui-même les horaires des matchs importants !

  Dès le lendemain, on rentre dans le vif du sujet : on entame les conférences et on lance le #ONEGossip. Pas de wifi dans la salle, mais nous survivons quand même. Nous en apprenons plus sur l’Union Européenne et le déroulement passé et à venir de la campagne ONE VOTE 2014 dans toute l’Europe.

  En début d’après-midi, un « Stand-up game » (« stand-up if you… ») nous permet –grâce à quelques discrets coups d’œil dans la salle- d’en apprendre plus sur nos camarades… et sur nos responsables. Nous avons également l’occasion d’échanger sur des sujets plus sérieux et notamment les succès et difficultés que nous avons chacun rencontrés dans nos pays respectifs lors de nos rencontres avec les candidats européens.

  Le ton est donné : bonne humeur, fun & travail. L’après-midi se clôt sur la répétition de la marche de mardi matin entre la Commission et le Parlement Européen et la victoire de la Belgique contre la Russie (et croyez-moi, c’était l’effusion totale à Bruxelles !).

    Lundi 23, nous continuons à nous cultiver, notamment en termes de plaidoyer et de techniques de plaidoyer, afin de nous préparer pour nos rencontres du lendemain au Parlement Européen. Nous avons aussi l’occasion de rencontrer les responsables de ONE à travers le monde grâce à un « speed dating » en groupe – en anglais, of course.

  L’après-midi est consacré à des thématiques particulières sur les défis des pays en voie de développement, notamment en Afrique. Nous recevons également M. Lapo Pistelli, Ministre Adjoint aux affaires étrangère en Italie, qui remporte un vif succès auprès de cette jeune audience.

  Petit temps libre pour le match Pays-Bas / Chili qui met en émoi nos collègues Hollandais avant de répéter à nouveau la photo du lendemain sur l’esplanade du Parlement Européen – rien n’est laissé au hasard, chez nous - puis de rejoindre un restaurant aux notes afro-brésiliennes pour clore la journée.

    Mardi, D-day, c’est LE Lobby Day. Nous nous retrouvons à 6h30 du matin (quand on veut sauver le monde, il faut se lever tôt !) pour nous rendre tous ensemble aux pieds de la Commission Européenne. Munis de panneaux portant la mention de Tweets de membres de ONE demandant le soutien des parlementaires, nous entamons notre marche jusqu’au Parlement Européen. Plus de 120 jeunes dans les rues de Bruxelles de si bon matin, autant dire qu’on ne passe pas inaperçu !

En arrivant au Parlement, photos pour la presse, rencontre de quelques parlementaires déjà signataires, distribution des badges… Puis nous pénétrons dans l’antre de ceux qui ont tant de pouvoir décisionnaire, notamment face à l’extrême pauvreté : les parlementaires européens. Nos proies sont tout près, nous le sentons.

Armés de nos plannings, nous préparons nos techniques de chasse, tapis dans une salle de conférence réservée pour nous à cette occasion et où certains élus viennent partager leurs expériences avec nous. Les uns après les autres, nous partons par meutes de 2-3 ou 4, les crocs acérés d’arguments en faveur de la lutte contre l’extrême pauvreté, en quête de soutien auprès des parlementaires avec lesquels nous avons rendez-vous.

  En tout, plus de 80 rendez-vous officiels, et d’autres obtenus en dernière minute pour 50 signatures et le soutien répété de nombreux parlementaires. Mission réussie sous le soleil bruxellois qui rayonne de solidarité.

  C’est repus et pleins d’espoir que nous repartons chacun vers nos contrées européennes. Difficile de se quitter, mais l’aventure n’est pas terminée. Il nous reste encore beaucoup de Parlementaires à convaincre, mais pas seulement. L’opinion publique doit également nous soutenir, car nous seront d’autant plus puissants si nous sommes un… enfin, ONE.

    #SupèresSouvenirs #GreatTime #EncorePlusMotivés

#WeAreONE