History of the Movement

The GenWell Project, the Canadian led Global Human Connection Movement, was originally inspired by the summer blackout of 2003 on the Eastern Seaboard of North America, when over 50M people found themselves without power for 2-7 days, depending upon where you lived. Having occurred shortly after the events of 9-11, the initial reaction of many was fear that something terrible had occurred, but as news spread that the blackout was caused by a power failure, people started to settle into a different crisis mode.

For those who had loved ones, the initial goal was to get to them and check in. With much of public transport at a standstill and cars not moving very quickly, due to the outage on streetlights, it took most people much longer than usual to get to where they wanted to be. This extended commute turned into opportunity after opportunity for the human species to shine bright. Whether in Canada or in the US, story after story arose, showing how people stepped up to help others and most of them, people they had never met before. From directing traffic, to filling up trucks and cars with people heading in all directions. From stores handing out ice cream and water to help people as they made their way home in the sweltering heat, people came together. At homes, condos, apartment building and office towers alike, people stepped up and helped people make their way safely home, even if it was a little more challenging than usual.

After launching our social media pages, activating around GenWell Weekends, and sharing our message with media, podcasts, and through many other communication channels for the first two years, it became abundantly clear that most people did not understand the facts around human connection and its benefits. This reality also became clear when we had the good fortune to meet with Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CEO of the Wellesley Institute and Director of Health Equity at the Centre For Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, who shared his support for the movement, but gave us one warning to be aware of. He kindly stated that “you will be very successful with this movement, but you need to know one thing. It is going to take time, as most people have no idea what you are speaking about.” Those words, although difficult to hear based on the importance of the message and mission that we were on, has rung true from that day forward, however the  global pandemic seems to have awoken us all to the need that we have to be connected with others. Starting in 2018, The GenWell Project shifted from only being a catalyst a couple times a year, to a 12-month awareness and education program that was working to educate, empower and catalyze 38 million Canadians to start building healthier connection habits each day.

Many grassroots movements require a catalytic moment to take their efforts to the broader population. The global pandemic may have been the catalyst that has awoken all of us to the need that we have for human connection in our lives. Not just the deep meaningful connections with close family and friends, but the casual collisions that happened in the workplace, on the street, at the local coffee shop and when out walking the dog. Those collection of connections, removed during the global pandemic,  added up to a sense of support, a sense of belonging and a sense of confidence that you were not in this world alone and that should you need support, you had a network in place. The global pandemic put a stop to many of those connections, and for the first few weeks, people found comfort in connecting on digital technology, but as the pandemic continued, we all started to get a taste of what it might be like to be socially isolated, disconnected, or lonely.

It was in the midst of the global pandemic that The GenWell Project took a pause to reset our targets, to refocus our efforts, to find support from government for our proactive health movement, to find corporate partners who recognized the importance and opportunity to lead in reconnecting Canada, and to take our place as the leader of a positive, proactive, health promotion campaign that had the power to support all Canadians through the end of the global pandemic and beyond.

It is our hope that people see the need to shift the societal focus from crisis management, to the preventative health approach that shares this message before the crisis arrives. Most of us have been educated about the importance of exercise and eating well, with many initiatives and campaigns having been in place for the last several decades. The time is now to begin educating our young, our old, our marginalized, our business and community leaders, and our politicians, about the importance of human connection and what we can all do to be a part of the solution.