The story behind International Peace & Love Day is a sweet one. When Beatles dummer Ringo start was asked by a journalist what he’d like most on his birthday (July 7th), he responded “peace and love”. Every year since, he’s encouraged people to spread #peaceandlove and positive energy around the world. To talk about it, act on it, or even just think about it. Whatever we can do in whatever large or small ways, today is all about finding pockets and places of peace and love. The story and the sentiment behind today are exactly what we want to support here at ASG & Partners.

Give Hope a Home

One project we’ve been working on feels particularly relevant to spreading peace and love. That is our campaign with the Health and Social Care NI Adoption and Fostering department. This year, the volume of children and young people arriving as refugees to Northern Ireland from Syria has meant a shortfall in the number of available homes. Reading headlines and newsfeeds about refugees forced to flee their countries of origin, we may not always think about the children and young people who are displaced and often alone or without close family. When our team were asked to develop a campaign to spread the word and secure safe homes for these young people, we felt extremely fortunate.

Working closely with HSCNI Adoption and Fostering and undertaking relevant in-depth research, we developed a strategy and campaign that shines a light on the challenges faced by Syrian children and young people as they arrive in Northern Ireland. We continue to monitor the results and next steps of the campaign with the goal of positively impacting the lives of these individuals now and going forward.

In whatever way you can, we hope you’ll spread #peaceandlove today.