Every Child Matters Year-long Learning Challenge

October 1, 2021 – September 30, 2022. 

We are pleased to share that over 100 organizations representing over 1500 staff and key volunteers have signed up for this pilot 2021-2022 Every Child Matters Year-long Learning Challenge.

The purpose of this challenge is help encourage learning going beyond just one day on September 30, and to provide support, resources and encouragement to make learning about Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, history and culture a deeper part of our lives in order to help to enable real change over time. And we know that without this, we cannot make deeper connections to our local land to ensure stewardship of it for generations to come.

The Orange Shirt Society, which founded Orange Shirt Day and Every Child Matters, is excited to partner with us on this initiative.

By signing up, organizations have committed to

• picking a day of the week over the coming year (Oct 1, 2021 – Sept 30, 2022) where you encourage your staff to wear orange (this could be a shirt, broach, lanyard, pin, ribbon etc) “to commemorate the residential school experience, to witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation.” (Orange Shirt Society on the origins of Orange Shirt Day)
• providing time, resources and/or opportunities each week for your staff to deepen their knowledge of local Indigenous culture, and engage in meaningful action

To support this we will:

• provide you with a weekly email with suggested Indigenous learning links that you can share with your staff – in order to allow for continued engagement, these will be focused on resources where the core information can be read, viewed or listened to in 20-30 minutes/week
• thanks to a number of generous supporters, we are able to provide the first 100 organizations, schools or businesses to sign up with a $50 gift card to our Outdoor Learning Store where you can access Indigenous Learning Resources to put out in your staffroom
• provide you with recommendations for where you can access Orange Shirts or Orange Lanyards for your staff that are provided by Indigenous organizations with Indigenous artwork
• recognize your commitment on this challenge page, as well as in our social media
• provide an opportunity each season to come together virtually with other participants and Indigenous leaders for an opportunity to learn, share and connect

CLICK HERE TO WATCH RECORDINGS OF OUR VIRTUAL GATHERINGS

RECOGNITION

We would like to recognize the organizations, businesses and schools which have signed on, and committed to deepening their learning in the year ahead: