McGill University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

As part of the program, students at the School of Nursing perform a needs assessment in collaboration with community members, who actively take part in identifying their own needs. Based on the assessments, students develop a health promotion or primary prevention project to be shared with the community at large upon completion. This way, students get to exchange culture and knowledge with members of an Indigenous community, while learning clinical competencies ranging from public health, health promotion, health education to primary prevention, and the communities get to share their knowledge, and benefit from the students’ work.

The Ashukin program has a direct impact on students’ professional development, as well as on the Indigenous communities they will be serving. First, students are exposed to individuals who exhibit a variety of health needs, which promotes the development of their population health and clinical skills in complex settings, and allows them to tailor specific health promotion and primary prevention interventions and programs, depending on the community’s needs. Second, the possibility of working with children, parents, educators and other health professionals in Indigenous communities will enhance not only students’ cultural competence and safety but also their public health competencies and ability to work in an interdisciplinary team.

Sustainability dimensions:
- Economic dimension: the program provides medical support for Indigenous communities within and near Montreal, an economically disadvantaged group
- Social dimension: the program helps reduce inaccessibility of healthcare by basing health interventions on needs-based assessment done in collaboration with the community
- Ecological dimension: the program recognizes the values and unique ecological and health insights of the Indigenous communities and actively promotes them by bridging the cultural gap. Treating Indigenous people in their local environment, rather than requiring them to travel to urban centres, is a key aspect of the program.

https://www.mcgill.ca/nursing/equity/indigenous-health/ashukin-program-gaihn

As part of the 2020–2025 Climate & Sustainability Strategy, a flagship action to help McGill achieve its target of carbon neutrality by 2040 is the development of a carbon offsetting program help offset the emissions from air travel and commuting.

In 2020, McGill University, the Emberá General Congress of the Alto Bayano, and AMARIE (Asociación de Mujeres Artesanas de Ipetí Emberá) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Reforestation and Carbon Offsetting Project to help offset McGill’s greenhouse gas emissions from University-funded air travel. From 2020–2022, 44 landowners in the communities of Ipetí- and Piriatí-Emberá in eastern Panama planted 44,500 trees as part of the Bayano-McGill Reforestation Project.

Led by the McGill Office of Sustainability, the action-research project is a collaboration with Dr. Catherine Potvin, Professor in the Department of Biology and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forests (Tier 1), who has worked collaboratively with the Embera of eastern Panama since the early 1990s. With Instructor Julie Major and Prof. Yann le Polain de Waroux, undergraduate interns of the Panama Field Study Semester (PFSS) will monitor tree growth in the field, and graduate students in Biology and Geography will conduct research.

Outcomes to date:
- 44,500 trees planted
- 1,014 tonnes of CO₂e offset
- 44 Local families participating

Sustainability Dimensions:
- Economic dimension: the program provides financial support for Indigenous communities eastern Panama, an economically disadvantaged group
- Social dimension: the program respects local Indigenous communities and promotes gender equality by collaborating with AMARIE, a women-led Indigenous community organization
- Ecological dimension: the program participates in the fair-trade carbon offset mechanism which seeks to offset emissions by reforestation, improving the environment and mitigating climate change

https://www.mcgill.ca/sustainability/commitments/carbon-neutrality/mcgill-bayano-reforestation

The Office of First Nations and Inuit Education (OFNIE) delivers community-based teacher education and professional development programs to Indigenous McGill students across Quebec. McGill academics and staff have formed longstanding partnerships with four partnering Indigenous education authorities, Kativik Ilisarniliriniq (KI); the Cree School Board (CSB); the Kahnawà:ke Education Centre (KEC); the Listuguj Education; Training and Employment Directorate (LETED), and are cultivating new relationships with First Nations school boards all the time.

The program allows local Indigenous teachers to achieve certification and a path to professionalization. It also offers Indigenous people the opportunity to pursue a post-secondary education that is culturally relevant and community-centred. The program plays an active role in reconciliation and relationship building between McGill and Indigenous communities. Certified teachers are also able to pass down Indigenous culture and languages to the next generation of students, benefiting both Indigenous and non-Indigenous pupils.

Sustainability dimensions:
- Economic dimension: McGill's Department of Integrated Studies in Education provides material support to the communities in the form of academic personnel
- Social dimension: this partnership addresses the major sustainability challenges of Indigenous access to education and promotion of Indigenous cultural and teaching practices.
- Environmental dimension: land-based education is a central component to the OFNIE programs. For example, in 2020, a cohort of students in Eeyou Istchee (Cree territory) followed a land-based, cultural skills course, which allowed students to fulfill their McGill credits while physically distancing in their camps, along their trap lines, or at home in their communities. The class involved discussions with Elders and other knowledge holders, drew upon a curriculum orientated to springtime cultural events, both past and current, and focused on the acquisition and preservation of the Cree language that is typically only used on the land.

https://www.mcgill.ca/dise/ofnie