Poland, The March, and the World

And to be clear... the purpose of this trip:

Over the last year, we have developed an outstanding relationship with March of the Living International. We are thrilled to be partnering with them in filling a major void in their program. We will serve as the official process that every marcher, this year and in the future, will go through as a first step in translating the power of their experience into action in their lives. 

Since the need for that missing piece of follow up in our own experience is largely what has motivated us over the last three years, we're giving back where it all began, taking the already-transformative experience of MOTL even further in its personal impact for people and getting MOTL started with its first-ever, much needed alumni follow-up program. 

Jeff and I will be here in Poland for the next few days to officially bring P6M to the 2014 March while Brandon covers ground support from the states. While we're here, we'll meet with as many international delegations as we can in three days, and then Jeff will speak at the Yom Hashoah ceremony in Birkenau! Yes- survivors, international dignitaries and performers... and us!!!  

He'll bring a call to action to the 13,000 people assembled there, invite them to join our movement and hand out the bracelets you see pasted below.  You can watch it live through the March of the Living website! We'll also be blogging from Poland, so check that out on the P6M website (new site launching tonight).

And, this is all because...

As P6M has taken a few turns, we're excited to be relaunching with clear, new direction which will bring tremendous impact. 

We've learned that approximately 23 million people per year experience some form of Holocaust or genocide awareness/education. We know they have that critical eye-opening moment - that shift in the way they see the world, just like we did. There is currently no process to convert those individual realizations into ongoing voice, awareness and positive action in the world or way for them to connect with one another. They have the same goals and intentions, but without any coordination or direct link to one another. Furthermore, in the days, weeks, months and years following the experience, the passion and emotion that were born in those moments are lost. 

We have created a process to solve this problem. Our objective is to provide a unique but shared post-experience process for all of those people. We make it easy for them to capture that moment with a statement, we share it out for them and connect them to other upstanders, and then we send their statement back to them in intervals - in a week, a month, six months, one year etc. In this way, we are creating one more Holocaust awareness moment than they would have had otherwise, which we believe is extremely significant in ensuring that Holocaust remembrance never dissipates.

We're extending the impact of their initial awareness and connecting them to one another in shared commitment to acting on it. We've created a bridge from that moment of intense emotion to an empowering way to communicate, take action, connect and make it multiply in their lives long after the moment. As a result, we will all be connected in advancing Holocaust awareness and improving the world.