Building a Movement for Humanity - A Personal Invitation

This is the idea I want to hand you:

The future is not inevitable. It is shaped by people who choose humanity.

And you could be one of them.

This is an invitation to become the person you want to be.

Why this, and why now?

We have built a world that quietly treats humanity as soft.

We optimise, automate and accelerate.

Somewhere in the rush, the person gets crowded out. People become tasks. Colleagues become obstacles. We move through our days like robots and wonder why so much feels hollow.

The cost is everywhere.

Burnout in the caring professions and beyond. Loneliness is at record highs.

And we have a generation of young people asking whether any of it means anything, bearing the costs of life without hope.

We have forgotten that humanity is the foundation from which all else comes. It is the source of thriving, prosperity and peace.

Yet humanity remains an extraordinary force. We see it in people who make difficult but inspiring choices for the good of others, creating connection, resilience and new possibilities.

Their example influences those around them, and those ripples continue in ways they may never see.

Humanity is not simply admirable; it is a performance multiplier and the foundation on which individuals, families, organisations and communities thrive.

What Champions is

Champions is a movement that centres leadership on what makes us human.

The belief behind it is simple: the world changes when people change how they treat each other.

We don't try to reach everyone.

We activate and connect the few — the small number of people whose choices, relationships and actions influence everyone around them.

Research on how real change spreads suggests you need only around 3.5% of a group to tip the whole.

Activate that committed core, and their humanity ripples outward. One choice gives permission for the next — enabling families, organisations and communities to thrive.

That is why the movement is called 35Champions.

And that ripple is not a metaphor; it is the mechanism. As the Georgia historian Michael Thurmond put it:

"If you can look in the mirror, see your faults, the things that need to be improved — if you can change yourself, you ultimately can change the world, and you may in fact change the course of history."

Change yourself, and you gain the weight, the gravitas to change the world.

The future is not written. We can write it. You can write it.

That is a message of immense hope — and it starts with the Power of One, the Power of Two, and the Power of 3.5.

Champions is you.

It works — I have seen it

This is not a theory dreamed up in a seminar room.

My understanding grew out of 22 years of volunteer and service leadership in Rwanda.

I had the privilege of working alongside young genocide survivors at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

This team developed a peace and values education curriculum, now embedded throughout Rwanda's entire school system — every child learns it. They went on to break cycles of violence in the Central African Republic, eastern Kenya and beyond.

The model has been proven in the hardest circumstances imaginable.

Then, with my colleague Steve Kelly, we developed a Champions Pathway, a program for everyday organisations, young people and families.

We launched it last year. This is still the beginning of the next chapter.

In just over a year:

• We delivered Champions Healthcare with Union Health Service, a 250-staff clinic in Chicago under the same strain so many healthcare organisations feel.
• We ran a Champions youth pilot with students from 10 US universities.
• And we raised over $250,000 through earned revenue and donations.

A healthcare leader told us:

"Champions has completely changed our trajectory, in the best possible way… the ripple effects are going to be never-ending."

A student leader said:

"I felt so much more relaxed. I feel better in class. I became a better friend… My quality-of-life improvement has been amazing — especially the relationships with my own family."

That is what humanity looks like.

A better friend. A calmer home. A life that feels like it means something again.

You can feel the potential. Champions activates that potential. Your potential.

Below is a short video taken last fall in Chicago, after the first students' Champions leadership retreat.

Scaling the Movement

We gain scale through strategic partnerships, through networks.

Champions has connected with some amazing organizations this past year.

This includes:

• Y20 - the official youth engagement group of the G20 nations.
• World Youth Clubs - supporting 1.5 million children across 60 countries.
• UK National Association of Boys and Girls Clubs - over 300,000 children in the UK, 3,000 clubs and 15,000 volunteers. They have a heritage of nearly 200 years.
• Northeastern University - Boston, USA, through their School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs.
• The Kigali Genocide Memorial - linking with its peace & values based curriculum and the Isoko Centre for Humanity.
• Civility Saves Lives - clinician-led campaign about how rudeness threatens patient safety, professional performance and staff.

This is just the beginning. There is much more to come.

You are the 3.5%

Here is the part that matters most.

It is about you.

Because the same agency that let a survivor forgive, that let a burnt-out team come back to life, that let a student become a better friend — lives in you.

Your influence is larger than you think.

The way you show up: in your team, your family, your community. You send ripples further than you will ever fully see.

You do not have to be powerful, or famous, or extraordinary.

You only have to choose to activate the humanity you already carry, and let it ripple. Become the change you want to see.

The 3.5% is not someone else. It’s you.

Become a Champion

If this stirs something in you, do not let it remain only a feeling.

Turn it into a choice.

• Join the 35Champions site as a free member and follow the movement as it grows.
• Pay it forward as a paid member, helping young people participate and become Champions within their own communities.
• Bring Champions into your family, community or organisation and become part of the movement.

The future is not written. We can write it.