As we approach Canada’s inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation tomorrow, I and my team are developing a plan to support the path toward healing for our Foundation’s work. This is a long journey that we are committed to.

While we’ve acknowledged and donned our orange shirts for Orange Shirt Day in years past, tomorrow takes it a step further by fulfilling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call-to-action #80, for the federal government to create a statutory holiday to honour residential school survivors and their families, and to ensure this horrific part of our nation’s history is not forgotten.

Conversations we continue to have about the damage of colonialism, truth and tragedies of our history, and the lived experiences that Indigenous people carry with them today, are so important for our work at the Foundation, but more importantly, our growth as individuals and the communities that we contribute to. And we know this is just the beginning.

We are grateful for the relationships we have with First Nations and Indigenous serving community partners who walk alongside us and continue to provide us cultural guidance.

We’ll be taking tomorrow to listen to the stories of survivors, to hear and acknowledge the painful truths that transpired, and to learn more about the effects of colonialism to this day. We will also be wearing orange to honour residential school survivors who never made it home.

Every child matters.

With gratitude,

Veronica Carroll

CEO