OneTime aims to create a platform where diverse, intersectional backgrounds, experiences, and stories can be shared with authenticity and pride, bringing stigmatized topics out into the open. Through our community events and social media campaigns, we are acknowledging the power of lived experience and knowledge in influencing perspectives and promoting change. By gathering people who have gone through similar experiences, we are building on the strength and comfort of community.

This year, informed by our own stories, we hope to start with a pilot event centring those with lived experiences of poverty. We will be recruiting a small group of 5-6 individuals who live in or have lived in poverty, and together we will explore our own stories of this shared experience. As a team, we will then reach out to community to listen to stories and capture them through video storytelling and artistic representation. These will be shared at  cumulative public event and digitally through social media to connect people who are experiencing similar situations and to ensure young people going through adversity know that they are not alone. By building a space where vulnerability is celebrated, young people may feel more represented and comfortable with their own stories. Community members who share their stories will also be given an opportunity to grow and feel empowered by the impact they have on others.