My name is Pascale Delaunay, as an athlete and an engineer from Haiti. I have experienced firsthand the transformative power that sports and technology can provide to people, especially the youth. With my experiences, I felt the best way I could contribute to my home country and our future was to enable others to find their paths to transformation. I set about to create an organization that acknowledges that external perspectives couldn’t provide long term solutions to the systemic problems the youth in Haiti face. Through my travels, I saw that Haiti wasn’t the only place where we could impact the community countless other cities, countries are in need of such transformative powers. The goal was simple, expose and enable them so that they can leverage what makes them unique, their perspectives and experiences to find innovative and sustainable solutions to the problems they face. I have a vision that children in places like Haiti with exposure and cultivation in transformative fields like A.S.T.E.A.M will catapult themselves to global success and leadership. I created Connect and Elevate to help make that vision a reality.
I partnered with two others who after speaking to them about my vision agreed to go on this journey to Connect and Elevate people, communities and the world. My coach Dr. Ernest Gregoire was watching a documentary one night about Haiti and had a thought, the next day at practice he mentioned it to be followed by he saw some of the children carrying going up hills and mountains with weight on their heads and couldn’t help but think that among those children there were countless with the natural athletic ability to be great. He was the first one to sign up to be on board with Connect and Elevate. My friend Rich Pierre Louis, who is an entertainer was the second. I approached him to get his feedback about what I wanted to do since he is also Haitian like myself, he added how much his life was changed when he found the arts, as an actor and comedian he said that those were his outlets and his therapy for all the challenges life has thrown his way. He agreed that giving the youth skills in sports and STEM fields would remain incomplete without a mechanism to express themselves. He joined us to help Connect and Elevate be truly transformative. Once I had the support and commitment of those two experts we worked to create Connect and Elevate.
Connect and Elevate is now a reality on a path to achieve our collective vision with a purpose. A purpose to make those that are typically out of reach, reachable. To bring experts in their respective fields of Athletics, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (A.S.T.E.A.M) to Haiti and other under-served places. We want to CONNECT these experts in A.S.T.E.A.M with the local instructors, coaches, and mentors and provide them training and networking opportunities they would otherwise not have access to. The basic and foundational knowledge and tools we provide in our clinics and camps empower the local children that they are teaching, thereby allowing the next generation to elevate themselves beyond what any outsider is capable of imagining for them. Exposing the coaches, teachers, instructors, mentors, and children to these experts will spark innovative thoughts and ideas so they can ELEVATE themselves to and beyond their current state and successfully thrive in the global landscape.
I hope more individuals join us and support us in whatever capacity they can. We can always be reached for discussion and ideas on how we can to impact the world.
Thank you for your trust and support!