| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 59.67 |
| Liaison | Luc Surprenant |
| Submission Date | Dec. 23, 2022 |
Université de Montréal
EN-10: Community Partnerships
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 3.00 |
Alexandre
Beaudoin Consultant, Biodiversity Vice rector's office, Finances and Infrastructures |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
1st Partnership
Darlington Ecological Corridor (Corridor écologique Darlington)
Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? :
Yes
Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe?:
Multi-year or ongoing
Which of the following best describes the partnership?:
Sustainability-focused
Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? :
Yes
A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability:
Summary
The Darlington Ecological Corridor Project is one of the flagship projects of the Sustainable Development Unit. Indeed, this project links both the maintenance of biodiversity, sustainable development and the teaching mission of the University. The goal is to create an ecological corridor (through greening, urban agriculture, stormwater management, and other ecological interventions) to link the Mount Royal's campus to the new Science Complex, the Mil Campus, to the abandoned racecourse grounds. This corridor should allow native Mount Royal flora and fauna to disperse throughout the island of Montreal, while improving the quality of life of citizens. The sustainable development unit is teaming up with the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough and residents to complete the various stages of the project. This includes, among other things, the establishment of urban gardens, the demineralization of a section of streets near the mountain and the planting of trees.
The project through time
The Darlington Ecological Corridor is a project that focuses on the ecological connectivity of green spaces in urban areas. The fallout is primarily to facilitate the movement of wildlife in the urban fabric, but many co-benefits are attached. Among them, the project promotes greater citizen empowerment, provides food, develops habitats for bees and, as a result, offers a pollination service, offers ecological alternatives to rainwater management and becomes an interesting playground for both UdeM students and the local community.
In 2014, the Université de Montréal, through the Sustainable Development Unit, the Biodiversity Advisor and a trainee in landscape architecture, proposed a project to connect green spaces linking its two campuses and crossing neighborhoods. Boundary. First proposed as a project of ecological connectivity between the green spaces of the environment, this project quickly integrated the social sphere.
In fact, in 2015, a dialogue workshop, organized by the Sustainable Development Unit and a student in human geography, took place with organizations working on the environment, conservation and development, as well as some citizens who took part in discussions about main deliverables of a project of this size for the community. This workshop was held at the summit of Mount Royal, a natural site where the University has its main campus. Also in 2015, a second student completed his internship in food sociology to better understand the profile of the surrounding community and their relationship to food. The main findings of this study still guide our various interventions. In partnership with the local borough, we have set up 40 giant jars to encourage citizens to garden and quietly develop links with the most committed people.
In 2016, a fourth student completes an internship with us. After the landscape architecture, geography and sociology, it is now the turn of a student in sustainable development with studies in biology that comes to help us develop new ideas and create our second consultation workshop, targeting mainly citizens. These reflections allow us to identify a priority intervention zone and leads us to develop relationships with the urban garden community. This is how the UdeM gardening group comes to lend a large composter for a year to weave the first links and allow them to develop a special project on in situ composting. A first direct material contribution from UdeM to the community. Until then, the Darlington project office acted as a facilitator between the community, the university and the borough. That same season, Sustainable Development Unit secured first external funding from the TD Bank Friends of the Environment Foundation. This money is directly reinvested in the community by inaugurating a nourishing forest in a rather moribund sector. The planting takes place with a group of young people whose summer job is to bring concrete solutions to the city in environmental matters, the Green Patrol. The project thus made it possible both to provide a place for young people to learn about tree planting, to green a sector while socially opening up the local community.
The Sustainable Development Unit gets for the season 2017, a second funding for a project of development of flowery meadows to provide habitat for bees. This project will take place in the field of our new partners, the community gardens. The maintenance of this site always takes place in the summer of 2019. During the same summer, we target a sub-community more specifically, realizing that a project of too great scale did not call the citizens. We have a first party in a park with food offered to start the discussion with the community and collect the specific needs of the community. This approach, the report of which is given to the local decision-makers, has made it possible to target certain projects and will have resulted in the creation of a dog park. We have repeated this model of celebratory consultation since then.
In 2018, a student of urban planning, supervised by the team of the UDD comes to contribute to the project by proposing new areas of intervention, while proposing a linkage of the project with other boroughs (Ville Mont-Royal and Ville Outremont). The Borough of Côte-des-Neiges - Notre-Dame-de-Grâce offers funding starting this summer to hire a horticulturist, a community animator, two students in urban planning (respectively specialized in active transportation and management of rainwater), a project manager in social mobilization and a project coordinator. This funding was renewed in the summer of 2019.
In summer 2019, a student in socio-ecology and sustainable development develops a program of integration of citizens through a calendar of activities (gardening, BBQ, children's party, permaculture workshops, etc.). The benefits exceed expectations. Citizens are contacting us and want to join the Darlington team on a volunteer basis in order to develop new project areas and new activities (green alleys, cleaning chores, citizen workshops, in situ composting). In addition, we started a first development with a hospital center (CIUSSS). It is a first project carried out by the team of sustainable development of the health system on the territory. This is a new and important partner.
Also, as recommended by the communication students, in the 2018-2019 school year, we started workshops in local elementary schools with the aim of creating a new generation of young farmers to maintain the gardens and raise students' awareness related to urban ecology issues.
In addition to these partnerships with local organizations, residents, the University, the boroughs and elementary schools, UdeM has developed a partnership with École Polytechnique. In the fall of 2017 and 2018, the CIV-4940 course for graduating students in civil engineering offers students the opportunity to develop an integrated approach to stormwater management in the corridor to address an infrastructure problem while providing a water supply for local biodiversity. The best works are then selected by the professor and are given to the sustainable development office of the borough to stimulate reflections on the next steps to develop. This successful project will become a continuing education workshop offered by École Polytechnique in the form of a MOOC. The latter is offered in English and all Canadian engineers. This makes it possible to integrate new notions of urban ecology into an engineering curriculum.
Also, since 2015, each year a professor from a different discipline has taken over the project concept in order to make it a session project. We were able to work with students in urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, communication and sustainable development. We hope to integrate students of geography and biological sciences in the short term.
2022 - FIRM Project
This project consists of developing plots of land on public, institutional and private rights-of-way. Its main objective is to allow the community to come together to exchange around ecological and food planning. This programming, motivated by urban health milestones, will aim to empower the community in terms of food while providing interfaces for cultural mediation interfaces.
https://corridorecologique.wixsite.com/darlington?fbclid=IwAR2g1AxtUDTKYexU24UXxImI1Fn6dYrJGHt7qlEc69to3IoEDfLVJw__zv4
https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/environnement/472910/corridor-darlington-sur-la-piste-du-renard-roux
http://voirvert.ca/nouvelles/actualites/le-projet-darlington-est-finaliste-du-prix-action-david-suzuki
https://durable.umontreal.ca/biodiversite/milieux-de-vie/projet-darlington/
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PRT_VDM_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/6-118-Hectares-PanneauCorridor-ecologique.PDF
https://unpointcinq.ca/article-blogue/corridor-darlington-montreal/
http://cmm.qc.ca/evenements/agora-2018/projets-inspirants/fiche-de-projet/?inspid=86
https://www.promenadesdejane.com/promenades/le-corridor-ecologique-darlington-un-passage-pour-desenclaver-la-biodiversite-du-mont-royal/
http://kollectif.net/le-projet-darlington-corridor-ecologique-et-vivrier-de-montreal/
The Darlington Ecological Corridor Project is one of the flagship projects of the Sustainable Development Unit. Indeed, this project links both the maintenance of biodiversity, sustainable development and the teaching mission of the University. The goal is to create an ecological corridor (through greening, urban agriculture, stormwater management, and other ecological interventions) to link the Mount Royal's campus to the new Science Complex, the Mil Campus, to the abandoned racecourse grounds. This corridor should allow native Mount Royal flora and fauna to disperse throughout the island of Montreal, while improving the quality of life of citizens. The sustainable development unit is teaming up with the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough and residents to complete the various stages of the project. This includes, among other things, the establishment of urban gardens, the demineralization of a section of streets near the mountain and the planting of trees.
The project through time
The Darlington Ecological Corridor is a project that focuses on the ecological connectivity of green spaces in urban areas. The fallout is primarily to facilitate the movement of wildlife in the urban fabric, but many co-benefits are attached. Among them, the project promotes greater citizen empowerment, provides food, develops habitats for bees and, as a result, offers a pollination service, offers ecological alternatives to rainwater management and becomes an interesting playground for both UdeM students and the local community.
In 2014, the Université de Montréal, through the Sustainable Development Unit, the Biodiversity Advisor and a trainee in landscape architecture, proposed a project to connect green spaces linking its two campuses and crossing neighborhoods. Boundary. First proposed as a project of ecological connectivity between the green spaces of the environment, this project quickly integrated the social sphere.
In fact, in 2015, a dialogue workshop, organized by the Sustainable Development Unit and a student in human geography, took place with organizations working on the environment, conservation and development, as well as some citizens who took part in discussions about main deliverables of a project of this size for the community. This workshop was held at the summit of Mount Royal, a natural site where the University has its main campus. Also in 2015, a second student completed his internship in food sociology to better understand the profile of the surrounding community and their relationship to food. The main findings of this study still guide our various interventions. In partnership with the local borough, we have set up 40 giant jars to encourage citizens to garden and quietly develop links with the most committed people.
In 2016, a fourth student completes an internship with us. After the landscape architecture, geography and sociology, it is now the turn of a student in sustainable development with studies in biology that comes to help us develop new ideas and create our second consultation workshop, targeting mainly citizens. These reflections allow us to identify a priority intervention zone and leads us to develop relationships with the urban garden community. This is how the UdeM gardening group comes to lend a large composter for a year to weave the first links and allow them to develop a special project on in situ composting. A first direct material contribution from UdeM to the community. Until then, the Darlington project office acted as a facilitator between the community, the university and the borough. That same season, Sustainable Development Unit secured first external funding from the TD Bank Friends of the Environment Foundation. This money is directly reinvested in the community by inaugurating a nourishing forest in a rather moribund sector. The planting takes place with a group of young people whose summer job is to bring concrete solutions to the city in environmental matters, the Green Patrol. The project thus made it possible both to provide a place for young people to learn about tree planting, to green a sector while socially opening up the local community.
The Sustainable Development Unit gets for the season 2017, a second funding for a project of development of flowery meadows to provide habitat for bees. This project will take place in the field of our new partners, the community gardens. The maintenance of this site always takes place in the summer of 2019. During the same summer, we target a sub-community more specifically, realizing that a project of too great scale did not call the citizens. We have a first party in a park with food offered to start the discussion with the community and collect the specific needs of the community. This approach, the report of which is given to the local decision-makers, has made it possible to target certain projects and will have resulted in the creation of a dog park. We have repeated this model of celebratory consultation since then.
In 2018, a student of urban planning, supervised by the team of the UDD comes to contribute to the project by proposing new areas of intervention, while proposing a linkage of the project with other boroughs (Ville Mont-Royal and Ville Outremont). The Borough of Côte-des-Neiges - Notre-Dame-de-Grâce offers funding starting this summer to hire a horticulturist, a community animator, two students in urban planning (respectively specialized in active transportation and management of rainwater), a project manager in social mobilization and a project coordinator. This funding was renewed in the summer of 2019.
In summer 2019, a student in socio-ecology and sustainable development develops a program of integration of citizens through a calendar of activities (gardening, BBQ, children's party, permaculture workshops, etc.). The benefits exceed expectations. Citizens are contacting us and want to join the Darlington team on a volunteer basis in order to develop new project areas and new activities (green alleys, cleaning chores, citizen workshops, in situ composting). In addition, we started a first development with a hospital center (CIUSSS). It is a first project carried out by the team of sustainable development of the health system on the territory. This is a new and important partner.
Also, as recommended by the communication students, in the 2018-2019 school year, we started workshops in local elementary schools with the aim of creating a new generation of young farmers to maintain the gardens and raise students' awareness related to urban ecology issues.
In addition to these partnerships with local organizations, residents, the University, the boroughs and elementary schools, UdeM has developed a partnership with École Polytechnique. In the fall of 2017 and 2018, the CIV-4940 course for graduating students in civil engineering offers students the opportunity to develop an integrated approach to stormwater management in the corridor to address an infrastructure problem while providing a water supply for local biodiversity. The best works are then selected by the professor and are given to the sustainable development office of the borough to stimulate reflections on the next steps to develop. This successful project will become a continuing education workshop offered by École Polytechnique in the form of a MOOC. The latter is offered in English and all Canadian engineers. This makes it possible to integrate new notions of urban ecology into an engineering curriculum.
Also, since 2015, each year a professor from a different discipline has taken over the project concept in order to make it a session project. We were able to work with students in urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, communication and sustainable development. We hope to integrate students of geography and biological sciences in the short term.
2022 - FIRM Project
This project consists of developing plots of land on public, institutional and private rights-of-way. Its main objective is to allow the community to come together to exchange around ecological and food planning. This programming, motivated by urban health milestones, will aim to empower the community in terms of food while providing interfaces for cultural mediation interfaces.
https://corridorecologique.wixsite.com/darlington?fbclid=IwAR2g1AxtUDTKYexU24UXxImI1Fn6dYrJGHt7qlEc69to3IoEDfLVJw__zv4
https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/environnement/472910/corridor-darlington-sur-la-piste-du-renard-roux
http://voirvert.ca/nouvelles/actualites/le-projet-darlington-est-finaliste-du-prix-action-david-suzuki
https://durable.umontreal.ca/biodiversite/milieux-de-vie/projet-darlington/
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PRT_VDM_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/6-118-Hectares-PanneauCorridor-ecologique.PDF
https://unpointcinq.ca/article-blogue/corridor-darlington-montreal/
http://cmm.qc.ca/evenements/agora-2018/projets-inspirants/fiche-de-projet/?inspid=86
https://www.promenadesdejane.com/promenades/le-corridor-ecologique-darlington-un-passage-pour-desenclaver-la-biodiversite-du-mont-royal/
http://kollectif.net/le-projet-darlington-corridor-ecologique-et-vivrier-de-montreal/
2nd Partnership
The Extension - Educational and Health Support Centre (L'Extention)
Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (2nd partnership):
Yes
Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (2nd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing
Which of the following best describes the partnership’s sustainability focus? (2nd partnership):
Sustainability-related
Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (2nd partnership):
Yes
A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (2nd partnership):
The Extension is a support centre in pedagogy and health, and is affiliated with the Université de Montréal. Its objective is to support the development of children in difficulty and to help their families by providing them with educational services and accessible health care.
The extension is made up of an interdisciplinary team, including teaching (orthopedagogy) and health professionals (optometry and dentistry). Together, they work to ensure comprehensive follow-up and complete intervention with children and their families.
This model offers several added values that make the learning of each individual highly significant:
Collaboration between children and student trainees
Interrelation between student trainees from different disciplines
Complementarity of care and services
Extension advances research and knowledge related to community services and care.
3 priorities for action :
Accessible services and care
An innovative training facility for students
A place to advance research
http://www.extension.umontreal.ca/
The extension is made up of an interdisciplinary team, including teaching (orthopedagogy) and health professionals (optometry and dentistry). Together, they work to ensure comprehensive follow-up and complete intervention with children and their families.
This model offers several added values that make the learning of each individual highly significant:
Collaboration between children and student trainees
Interrelation between student trainees from different disciplines
Complementarity of care and services
Extension advances research and knowledge related to community services and care.
3 priorities for action :
Accessible services and care
An innovative training facility for students
A place to advance research
http://www.extension.umontreal.ca/
3rd Partnership
Pathways to Transition (Chemins de transition)
Does the institution provide financial or material support for the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Yes
Which of the following best describes the partnership timeframe? (3rd partnership):
Multi-year or ongoing
Which of the following best describes the partnership? (3rd partnership):
Sustainability-focused
Are underrepresented groups and/or vulnerable populations engaged as equal partners? (3rd partnership):
Yes
A brief description of the institution’s formal community partnership to advance sustainability (3rd partnership):
The starting point
Accelerating climate change, massive loss of biodiversity, depletion of natural resources: the question is no longer whether we are heading towards a profoundly different society, but whether this transition will be entirely undergone, or at least partially chosen.
From an ideal to be achieved, sustainable development has become for many a profound source of anxiety about our ability to actually get there. This growing sense of urgency contrasts sharply with the apparent inertia of our societies and the attitude of denial adopted by a considerable part of the population as well as decision makers.
In this context, and even more so today, the role of experts as well as that of citizens is called upon to change, with a more pronounced need to collectively regain leverage over our future. Both the promotion and the critical approach of ideal models of sustainability are no longer enough: we also need to better know and debate the possible transition pathways, formidable or desirable, that humanity will take to ensure its survival.
Energy, food, health, production and consumption modes, economic and cultural models: together, we must rethink everything.
Transition Pathways
Faced with the unprecedented ecological crisis facing humanity, the Université de Montreal and Space for Life have joined forces to propose Transition Pathways, a major project to engage the academic community, alongside other vital forces in society, in the necessary debate on the transition in Quebec.
Since 2019 and for the next few years, Transition Pathways (Chemins de transition) will mobilize the knowledge of several disciplines, and multiple actors, to collectively identify the paths that have the potential to lead Quebec society on a more desirable trajectory.
This work is structured around three major challenges:
How to feed more and more humans in health without depleting the earth's resources, in a context of climate change?
How to make the digital transition and the ecological transition converge?
How to live in Quebec in a sober and resilient way in a context of ecological transition?
Accelerating climate change, massive loss of biodiversity, depletion of natural resources: the question is no longer whether we are heading towards a profoundly different society, but whether this transition will be entirely undergone, or at least partially chosen.
From an ideal to be achieved, sustainable development has become for many a profound source of anxiety about our ability to actually get there. This growing sense of urgency contrasts sharply with the apparent inertia of our societies and the attitude of denial adopted by a considerable part of the population as well as decision makers.
In this context, and even more so today, the role of experts as well as that of citizens is called upon to change, with a more pronounced need to collectively regain leverage over our future. Both the promotion and the critical approach of ideal models of sustainability are no longer enough: we also need to better know and debate the possible transition pathways, formidable or desirable, that humanity will take to ensure its survival.
Energy, food, health, production and consumption modes, economic and cultural models: together, we must rethink everything.
Transition Pathways
Faced with the unprecedented ecological crisis facing humanity, the Université de Montreal and Space for Life have joined forces to propose Transition Pathways, a major project to engage the academic community, alongside other vital forces in society, in the necessary debate on the transition in Quebec.
Since 2019 and for the next few years, Transition Pathways (Chemins de transition) will mobilize the knowledge of several disciplines, and multiple actors, to collectively identify the paths that have the potential to lead Quebec society on a more desirable trajectory.
This work is structured around three major challenges:
How to feed more and more humans in health without depleting the earth's resources, in a context of climate change?
How to make the digital transition and the ecological transition converge?
How to live in Quebec in a sober and resilient way in a context of ecological transition?
Optional Fields
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Website URL where information about the institution’s community partnerships to advance sustainability is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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