Jean-Philippe Marier's ACT4LOVE mission targets one billion acts of encouragement by 2040

Jean-Philippe Marier has spent the last 1,600 consecutive days doing one thing: encouraging people to encourage each other. On Wednesday, the Montreal activist formally launched ACT4LOVE, a mission with an audacious target—one billion acts of encouragement by 2040.

Marier, passionate about psychology and personal development, started the practice in February 2022 after witnessing the isolation many felt during the pandemic. What began as "free hugs" to strangers evolved into high-fives, compliment cards, and the conversations that follow. He's now logged over 52,000 acts of encouragement across more than 50 countries, and the momentum keeps building.

"ACT4LOVE is actually an adventure of encouraging people to encourage others, as simple as that," Marier said. "We have this big vision, but it's mainly about all the beautiful stories that we will build all together."

The movement works two ways: in-person participation amplifies the impact—numbers jump when people show up face-to-face. Remote participants can join through social media or the ACT4LOVE app, which lets users send pre-made encouragement cards or create custom ones. Marier frames the app not as entertainment but as a way for people to become active participants in the mission, not passive observers.

Marier has discovered that encouraging others transforms the giver as much as the receiver. He's betting that if encouragement becomes a daily habit for enough people, the ripple outward could reshape how communities connect. The goal is ambitious; the mechanism is simple: one person, one kind word, one billion times.