McGill University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

"In the spring and summer of 2007, volunteers and researchers from Alternatives and Santropol Roulant (two leading NGO’s) and the Minimum Cost Housing Group of McGill University’s School of Architecture incorporated productive growing in a concrete covered, prominent urban corner of the University’s downtown campus.

The result, the Edible Campus, was a 120 square meter container garden that involved citizens in the creation of green, edible community spaces. The Edible Campus has also demonstrated how productive planting can be woven into urban spaces without diminishing the utility or functionality, while exploring strategies for increasing food production in the city and improving spatial quality by exploiting underutilized and neglected space.

The project was made possible with the assistance from McGill’s Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) and of course all the volunteers from McGill and the community. The project began in 2007 and is ongoing.

Active community participation: This bottom up seasonal initiative involves volunteers who are actively engaged in running the Edible Campus. Community volunteers are involved in every step of gardening: Through a participatory process they help set up the garden, water weed and maintain it, collect and deliver harvest from it, they are also involved in related social and outreach programs, and at the end of the season help dismantle it.

Social inclusion: Diverse community members surround the Edible Campus; they include: The McGill University community, volunteers, NGO actors and visitors. Community members from diverse backgrounds come in contact through the garden; in the case of McGill, they are primarily composed of students, academics and staff. Interaction happens on a variety of levels, from simply passing through the site or engaging in conversations that are inspired through curiosity, to cooperation in maintaining the plants or attending events like the harvest festival taking place within the garden. Moreover, Edible Campus has emerged as a platform for intergenerational exchange and dialogue."

http://santropolroulant.org/en/what-is-the-roulant/urban-agriculture/mcgill-gardens/
https://www.mcgill.ca/mchg/projects/ediblecampus
https://www.mcgill.ca/mchg/files/mchg/MakingtheEdibleCampus.pdf

SEDE high school HomeWork Zone Project
http://sedehomeworkzone.com/

The Homework Zone After-School Program is a student mentorship opportunity that is designed with the whole child in mind. Aiming to increase access to education (specifically post-secondary), McGill students are partnered with elementary-aged students in Montreal’s southwest to scaffold learning and empowerment. Elementary students encouraged to join this program would have the ability to succeed if given the proper tools and support, though currently may be displaying inadequacies academically and/or socially. Students selected may also be performing above expectations and would benefit from creative encouragement. Other students may simply benefit from regularly interacting with an adult/older youth figure. The program occurs once per week for 1.5 hours after-school.

Homework Zone is brought to you by the Social Equity and Diversity Education (SEDE) Office of McGill University. Following standards found in the Principal’s Task Force on Diversity, Excellence and Community Engagement, they have developed a pedagogical method that re-examines the meaning of post-secondary education for both mentors and students.

Academically, the mentors focus on basic literacy, Mathematics and French. It is important to bring ‘successful’ young adults into the schools to show children that it is okay to love learning. Mentors are encouraged to take advantage of the small-group tutoring to break down concepts and give the children the tools to finish the homework independently.

Socially, Homework Zone has shown student improvement in terms of communication/expression, peer interaction and self-regulation. Homework Zone sessions devote half of the time allotted to creative activities and interactive workshops. By introducing students to new skills, new ideas and new people, we believe Homework Zone helps each child develop his/her identity and self-confidence.

Quartier de l'innovation (QI)

"The QI is a “living laboratory” located in Montreal's historic southwest district which aims to increase collaborations and partnerships with local actors. The QI district offers students, researchers and professors opportunities to explore solutions to expressed-needs, with the goal of improving the quality of life in the community. Its mission is to create - around knowledge institutions and based on international standards - an urban district of the highest quality.

The QI brings together a creative and engaged community with the purpose of driving an innovative and entrepreneurial culture that balances its four pillars: Industrial, Education and Research, Social and Cultural, and Urban. The QI does so based on a series of fundamental values, such as inclusion, sustainability, openness, leadership, transparency and respect, which inform its daily operations, ongoing projects and multiple cross-collaborations.

The QI is inclusive to whomever wants to participate: residents, famillies, students, artists, SMEs and community organizations. Citizens have the chance to let us know their opinions through public consultations, for example or by joining a Liaison Group.

The QI neighborhoods are filled with arts & culture organizations, not-for-profits and SMEs who don’t necessarily have access to student interns to help in their development. One of the goals of the QI is to bring these diverse actors together to create multidisciplinary and diverse interactions. The McGill QI Team thus works to create links between external partners and student-interns."

For more information, see https://www.mcgill.ca/qi/
For more about some of QI's projects, see https://www.mcgill.ca/qi/files/qi/qi_project_booklet_e_september_2014_final.pdf