{"id":21165,"date":"2019-09-10T13:51:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T17:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/un-engagement-qui-prend-racine-dans-lenfance\/"},"modified":"2021-03-26T12:09:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T16:09:27","slug":"childhood-experiences-lay-the-roots-of-a-lifelong-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/childhood-experiences-lay-the-roots-of-a-lifelong-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Childhood experiences lay the roots of a lifelong commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to get home at night after spending three hours at an agency and receiving so much gratitude.\u201d<\/p>Francis <\/strong>is involved in his community through different ogranizations, including as a volunteer on Centraide’s agency allocations committee. <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI became concerned about poverty and social exclusion issues when I was just 10 years old, when my father moved our family to Haiti. My father is from Haiti and my mother is from Quebec. I was from Boucherville, a suburb where children don\u2019t want for anything. In Haiti, I was the white boy. In Canada, I was a foreigner. I had to find my way in both places, and at times I felt quite isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haiti was a big culture shock for me. For example, there\u2019s such a gap between the poor and the well-off, you can\u2019t believe your eyes! But then, after a while, you become blind to the poverty around you, which is equally unbelievable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the children who play in the street feel no barriers. Rich or poor, we all had fun together with what we had on hand, like marbles, jacks, or dominoes. I had a bicycle and others didn\u2019t, so I would loan them mine. Things were simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came back to Canada at age 19 to realize my dream of becoming a lawyer. After that, I felt that I had the time and the tools to help others and that I could start getting involved in local agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like volunteering and donating my time, skills and life experience to a cause that makes a difference in people\u2019s lives, without expecting anything in return\u2014although the feeling I get from it is incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The causes I\u2019m involved in have a direct link to my childhood. I have seen, felt and experienced poverty and social isolation. By getting involved, I feel like I\u2019m taking action against an unjust situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the father of two young children, I am particularly concerned about childhood poverty. I really want all children to have the same opportunities that mine do: to grow up happy and, above all, to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I meet people who receive help from Centraide-supported agencies, I truly feel that my commitment has an impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m proud to give my time. It\u2019s incredible to get home at night after spending three hours at an agency and receiving so much gratitude. You feel so light!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Francis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Francis s\u2019engage dans sa communaut\u00e9 aupr\u00e8s de divers organismes, incluant Centraide, pour lequel il \u0153uvre \u00e0 titre de b\u00e9n\u00e9vole au comit\u00e9 d\u2019allocations aux organismes.
\n\u00ab Revenir \u00e0 la maison le soir apr\u00e8s avoir pass\u00e9 trois heures dans un organisme en sachant que mon aide est appr\u00e9ci\u00e9e, c\u2019est formidable! \u00bb <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6160,6269,229,6344,486,6172","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[668,669],"tags":[680],"content-type":[493,709],"sector":[],"class_list":["post-21165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volunteering","category-youth-success","tag-early-childhood","content-type-articles-en","content-type-testimonials"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 13:06:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21165"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25622,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21165\/revisions\/25622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21165"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=21165"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=21165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}