Side 2020 – 2020 International Education Summit – Montréal Welcomes Al Gore to the First International Education Summit Under the Patronage of UNESCO and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO

MONTRÉAL, Jan. 21, 2020 – The Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation is pleased to welcome several distinguished guests for the inaugural 2020 International Education Summit (SIDE 2020) that will be taking place from May 12 to 14 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. Speakers include environmentalist and 45th Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, internationally renowned psychologist and author of the bestseller Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, and Michèle Audette, Assistant to the Vice Rector, Academic and Student Affairs, and Senior Advisor, Reconciliation and Indigenous Education at Université Laval. The event will tackle major issues and concerns affecting the world today and will offer practical solutions in education, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in order to create a sustainable and caring world. Researchers and education professionals from Quebec, and around the world, will be in attendance to present today’s best practices.

The inaugural 2020 International Education Summit will focus on three themes, each overseen by a different scientific committee: Healthy social and emotional lifestyles in schools; Climate change, sustainability and entrepreneurship; Revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and education. The Summit caters to youths, communities of practice, higher education professionals and civil society.

“The goal of the International Education Summit is to encourage cross-cultural exchanges between youths, communities of practice and researchers,” said Jasmin Roy, President of the Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation. “The three proposed themes help guide these exchanges, and all of them are so important. It’s not only vital to develop social and emotional skills in schools, but we need to change our relationship with the environment and incorporate the ancestral knowledge of First Nations in order to support truth and reconciliation.”

Healthy Social and Emotional Lifestyles in Schools

Today’s modern societies show a troubling increase in mental health issues in youths. At the same time, more and more research has shown how essential it is to develop healthy social and emotional lifestyles in schools in order to prevent such issues for youths. This also provides tools and contributes to putting an end to violence and bullying in schools. Hence, there is a real need to implement educational measures that promote the development of social and emotional skills from early childhood to university.

François Courcy, Head of the Observatory on Healthy Social and Emotional Lifestyle Habits at the Université de Sherbrooke, will lead this committee. Its mission will be to propose practical solutions in order to offer training courses and workshops on the latest advancements in social and emotional learning. Discussions will focus on anxiety management for students and teachers, absenteeism, emotional regulation in school, and caring schools and academic success, to name only a few. Specialists from CASEL and the Gandhi Institute are some of the outstanding professionals attending events under this Summit’s theme.

Climate Change, sustainability and Entrepreneurship

The need to bolster the number of schools preparing youths for the challenges of climate change is evident, as wildfires are ravaging Australia and raising international awareness for environmental issues affecting the planet.

In September 2019, Montréal hosted a historic rally in support of immediate action in the fight against climate change, sending a clear message to governments for increased action, as hundreds of thousands of young people took to the streets. Similar climate demonstrations were held in over 2,000 cities across 120 countries, a testament to the concern of younger generations about the issue.

SIDE 2020 will use this theme to explore Indigenous perspectives on climate change, sustainability, the influence of media on understandings of climate change, and entrepreneurship. One notable speaker on this theme will be Al Gore, environmentalist and 45th Vice President of the United States.

Revitalizing Indigenous Knowledge and Education Indigenous

According to UNESCO’s estimates, there are 370 to 500 million Indigenous people around the world, comprising 5% of the Earth’s total population, scattered across 22% of the planet. Indigenous groups account for over half the world’s cultural diversity and speak 7,000 living languages. However, according to the United Nations, 90% of these languages will disappear within the next 100 years.

The theme will be supervised by a scientific committee chaired by Marco Bacon, the former Director of the Centre des Premières Nations Nikanite (CPNN) at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. In order to promote the traditional knowledge of Indigenous people and help protect cultural diversity, the committee’s primary objectives will be ensuring knowledge is passed down, revitalizing Indigenous languages, eradicating poverty through education, reducing inequality, designing sustainable cities and communities, and developing partnerships to achieve these objectives. Indigenous people from Australia, the United States, South America, Europe and Canada’s Far North will come together to demonstrate how Indigenous knowledge and education remain alive and well across the globe.

To learn more about SIDE 2020’s programming and to purchase tickets, visit side-mtl.com.

SIDE 2020
The International Education Summit, under the patronage of UNESCO, is an educational event of two days and one evening bringing together scientific, professional, entrepreneurial, student and civil society communities through continuing education with discussions on educational, relational and climate issues, and most importantly, sustainable solutions. The 2020 Summit will be divided into three themes: Healthy social and emotional lifestyles in schools; Climate change, sustainability and entrepreneurship; and Revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and education. Thanks to its many committed education partners, the International Education Summit is a not to be missed global event offering practical and innovative measures that will provide today’s youths with an ideal way to develop 21st-century skills, as recommended by the OECD and UNESCO.

About the Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation
Founded in 2010, the primary mission of the Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais Foundation is to fight bullying, violence and discrimination against elementary and secondary school children. Its goal is to promote caring environments for students by supporting and organizing various initiatives that provide more effective interventions with victims, aggressors and witnesses. The Foundation’s team is committed to finding long-term solutions to the problems of violence and bullying in all walks of life and engaging in prevention of mental health issues with affected youths. Jasmin Roy and the Foundation’s honorary patron, Sophie Desmarais, are now registered as representatives of civil society with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

For further information: Press contacts: Raphael Rochette, rrochette@zonefranche.ca, +1 514 923 9092; Morgane Lopez, mlopez@zonefranche.ca, +1 514 993 5571

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