Sean Hepburn Ferrer – Chair of UNICEF'S Audrey Hepburn Society and the son of actress Audrey Hepburn – is the latest public figure to join the growing global Everyone Matters campaign, which advocates for everyone’s right to be who they are, without judgment, shame or attack.
“To feel our humanity is to care about others, who they are, how they feel – or as my mother Audrey Hepburn used to say, ‘Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.’”
Sean Hepburn Ferrer has offered his support to the inaugural global “Everyone Matters Day” on April 2, 2014, which is being officially recognizing with resolutions or proclamations by London, Los Angeles, Dublin, San Francisco, Washington, DC., Denver, Seattle, Dallas, Portland, the State of Maine, and others to be announced.
Mr. Ferrer has divided his energy and talents between film production and philanthropy – having just been named Rare Disease Ambassador for 2014, as well as serving as Chair of UNICEF’s Audrey Hepburn Society.
Sean Hepburn Ferrer joins the following roster of leaders who support the humanitarian message of Everyone Matters, and have penned personal statements for the campaign: Sir Paul McCartney, Ellen DeGeneres, Hugh Jackman, George Clooney, General Colin Powell, Kevin Spacey, Tom Brokaw, HH the Dalai Lama, Nick Clooney and Nina Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Natalie Portman, Jeff Skoll, Craig Newmark, Debra Messing, Mary Tyler Moore, Bernadette Peters, Christina Aguilera, Deepak Chopra, Dame Judi Dench, Betty White, Fran Drescher and Chris Kluwe.
Everyone Matters is a big-tent campaign joining global figures, leading organizations, local governments and the public in advocating for everyone’s right to dignity and respect, and to be allowed to be who they are – without judgment, shame or attack – including ourselves. The tagline of the global dignity movement is “It’s time to stop judging others – and ourselves!”
A cultural phenomenon, Everyone Matters is mushrooming both online via social media and in local communities, with a total reach of 55 million on Facebook and 165,000 followers around the globe. An estimated 100 schools in the U.S. and beyond will have organized “Everyone Matters Day” for 2013-2014, with such activities as the “I Am!” pride-in-identity PhotoBooth and VideoWall, where students hold up hand-written signs proclaiming anything about themselves they want to affirm; the “24-Hour Challenge” to not judge in thought or action for the entire day; and the “Letting Go of Judgment Tree” or “Act of Kindness Tree,” in which students collectively share names they’ve been called, or called others, and then “let it go,” or record moments of kindness to others.
The power – and success – of Everyone Matters is its humanistic, universal yet personal approach. The campaign advocates on behalf of everyone’s right to be who they are, regardless of gender, age, weight, skin color, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical limitations – combined with the intertwined message that affirms pride in identity.
Leading organizations supporting Everyone Matters include The Special Olympics, The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, Association of American Colleges and Universities, NAACP, National Association of Secondary School Principals, The Museum of Tolerance, Association of American People with Disabilities, National Organization of Women, UN Women National Committee United States, GLAAD, The Trevor Project, Human Rights Campaign, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, Student Affairs Administrators, Equality Now!, National Hispanic Media Coalition, MTV’s A THIN LINE Campaign, National Partnership for Women & Families, Asian American Justice Center, Network National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.
The Everyone Matters campaign was founded by social entrepreneur and journalist HeathCliff Rothman, whose previous social media civic engagement campaign was Film Your Issue (FYI). FYI was an issue -driven short film competition with a stellar roster of media partners and jurists that included then-Senator Barack Obama, Walter Cronkite, George Clooney, Anderson Cooper, Tom Brokaw, Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as YouTube, Microsoft, Yahoo!, MSNBC, MySpace, AOL, MTV and others.
