Story of Hope: Generation WE

Apr 28 | What Different Can Do

At Camp Southern Ground, we believe in the power of inclusion – and so do our friends at Generation WE. Founder and Executive Director Annie Totten created Generation WE to bring knowledge, curiosity and insight into embracing all differences through the power of books and creative workshops to school-age children.

Inspired by her son Jack, Annie created Generation WE to show children that being different is not only okay – it’s powerful. This month, we sat down with Annie to talk about inclusion, the impact of Generation WE and her work, and one small thing we can all do to build more inclusive communities.

Tell us more about Generation WE. Can you take us back to the moment when the idea for Generation WE first sparked?

Generation WE was founded out of the desire to help create a world where children are seen for ALL that they are… not just a single part of their story. It is the result of watching my son, Jack, grow up with cerebral palsy. Jack’s brain injury occurred at birth, and we were told by medical professionals around Jack’s first birthday that he may never walk, and he certainly would never run…well, we decided to focus on what Jack COULD do, and after hundreds of hours of therapy and a lot of hard work, he eventually walked at the age of 4 and a half.

Jack continues to break barriers, and within his own brave and quiet way, he has shown us what inclusion can look like and trust me when I say that the inclusion we have witnessed is powerful and humbling and fulfilling and amazing on every level. This past year, Jack started his freshman year of high school, and he ran both cross country and track. His running looks different than the other athletes, as he runs with his left arm tucked in tight and he drags his left foot a bit, and he is MUCH slower than his peers, oh, and he falls a lot… but he continues to be welcomed and celebrated for showing up, and all of this just reinforces what he continues to teach us, that there are MANY ways to do things, and just because it looks different, doesn’t mean he doesn’t belong or doesn’t deserved to be celebrated.

Generation WE is all about “celebrating you and me and all that makes us perfectly unique.”

We use the power of storytelling to instill this into children in a natural way. We have a library of over 400 titles that represent ALL children… and we use these books to help expose children to differences at a young age, and then to validate every one of them as they grow older and are looking for representation in the books they read.

In addition to literature, we are focused on empowering kids to share their stories through open mediums such as art or creativity, and what we have found is that kids not only love to share, but they also love to listen… and when they do this, they connect… and this connectivity creates an inclusive society.

What does “inclusion” mean to you on a personal level?

Inclusion to me means providing the opportunity for all children to be a celebrated and important part of society. I believe we all have such a powerful and beautiful reason for being here, and that we have gifts to offer that will uplift others. Inclusion means taking the time to see both the diversity and the connectivity around us.

The way I see it, humans are all connected on a deep, unbreakable level. We all want to be loved and to belong, that is our bond. We come to earth with an amazing spectrum of “colors” in our personality, our expressions, our experiences. These “colors” are the fun and the energy that keeps us all interested as a global society. When you take our solid connection of wanting to be loved and then add on our colors of personality and experiences, it’s like adding sprinkles on a sundae… there’s nothing better. Inclusion is choosing to enjoy the full sundae.

Tell us What Different Can Do!

Different can change the world. Different is every. Single. One. Of us. What I tell the children that we work with is that their fingerprint is not the only thing unique to them – their stories, their experiences, and their gifts are unique as well. Not one person on the planet experiences life the way that they do, and that is powerful and important to share. Each child deserves to have a platform to share all that they are, and to hear about others… when we create these opportunities, the connections and the possibilities are endless.

Can you share a moment when you saw the impact of your work and thought, “Yes, this is why I’m doing this?”

I love this question because my brain starts to spin when I hear it. Every single opportunity I have had to interact with kids through our workshops and experiences has given me a bold reminder of why this work is important. The energy is really something bigger than I can explain…

There are days where the manual labor of conducting our work feels like a lot, but the minute we get settled with the kids and I get to see their expression of self through the art, I am humbled and inspired and always learning something new. Many very personal things have been shared on their customized pieces of art… loss of family members, diagnosis of many kinds, aspirations of what they want to be when they get older, what countries they have left to live here in the US. Kids chat as they work and suddenly classmates know so much more about their peers – they have connected.

One interaction, in particular, was when a child came up to talk to me after a workshop and said, “you know how you told us about Jack and how he has a hard time with moving his body, well I was diagnosed with diabetes a few months ago and it’s really hard for me.” She went on to tell me all the changes in her day that she experiences now, and how much she misses out on things, how it makes her sad and tired. Her teacher didn’t know much of what she shared with me. I had only known her for an hour… but because she was told that all parts of her were celebrated by our team, and that we too had some challenges to overcome, she felt safe to share. That is powerful and rare, and we feel this kind of opportunity for children is very important.

What’s one small action we can all take today to make our communities more inclusive?

Be curious about differences. Oftentimes what prevents inclusion is simply lack of knowledge. We may not know why a person looks or acts a certain way, and we are afraid to ask. We may make assumptions or put up some type of a wall between us and the difference but being open to hearing about and learning about differences allows us to be a better neighbor, friend and member of society. Listen to a podcast, read a book, read to your kids. When we look at differences as something we ALL have, and we look at them in a positive and celebratory way because they are simply part of being human, we are more loving and inclusive.

If kids are reading this – what would you want them to take from it?

I always want kids to feel empowered and proud of ALL that they are. I hope that anytime they come away from something from Generation WE, that they have a greater understanding of what makes us all perfectly unique… that we have different family dynamics, different skin colors, different abilities and challenges, that we come from so many different places and may speak different languages or eat different food, but in the end we can always find connection.

I promise that if you talk to anyone on this planet for just a few minutes, you will find connections, Whether it is a common love of sports, a love for food, travel, family, a common loss or hardship, it’s impossible not to connect when we share!

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