All can join in 2nd annual Community Engagement Day
By McGill Reporter Staff
Some 50 projects involving a variety of community groups will be featured on Community Engagement Day (CED), which will take place on campus and around the city of Montreal on Thursday, Oct. 2.
The aim of these projects is to facilitate collaborative relationships. Members of the McGill community can be involved with existing projects happening around Montreal – learning experientially about societal issues and challenges facing communities in Montreal while doing something to address them.
All McGill students, staff and faculty can register to participate in one of the projects. “We hope to provide opportunities for thinking about the knowledge and research gained within this institution as grounded in the context of everyday experience,” said Lina Martin-Chan, who is in her final semester as a Cultural Studies student and CED’s communications co-ordinator.
Previously, CED has worked with organizations such as the Native Women’s Shelter, the Yellow Door and the N.D.G. Food Bank, Martin-Chan said, and past projects have included community walking tours, urban gardening projects, interactive workshops and filming a sign language movie.
“This year, we are working to highlight the existing projects and relationships that McGill has with the broader Montreal community,” Martin-Chan said, “as well as to facilitate the expansion and strengthening of those existing connections. We also hope to be an actor in creating new relationships.”
Some organizations that CED is very excited to be working with this year are the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee, AIDS Community Care Montreal and Maison Benedict Labre (a community centre for the underhoused and street people – involved in the south-west), Martin-Chan said.
“We are also working with a number of groups on campus, including Monster Academy, which was this year’s QPIRG Summer Stipend project. In addition, we will be hosting a number of public discussions that will range from topics on the place of history in gentrification to career opportunities in the non-profit sector.
“We want to encourage mindfulness on the importance and also complexities of volunteering culture, and also about the opportunities for community building through involvement with these organizations by integrating a reflection component in each project.”
For more information, contact Adam Finley, Lina Martin-Chan or you can reach CED by phone at 514-398-5645. To see the full list of projects and to register check out the CED website.