Our Neighbourhood

“Some of the kids started out not knowing that lettuce is a leaf, while others were already experts from gardening with their Italian grandparents.” | Lauren Pochereva

Meaningful engagement with society means building partnerships with communities across the province, the country or even an ocean. It’s also about working with the people just down the street–one small garden, or an entire neighbourhood, at a time.

Lauren Pochereva has fond memories of peering through a microscope at plants that she helped grow while a child on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. So when the 25-year-old received the 2012 Pathy Family Foundation (PFF) Community Leadership Fellowship, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with it: give Montreal city kids a taste of farming.

Pochereva wanted to put her post-grad fellowship to work in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG), where she had volunteered while completing a Diploma in Environment and a BA in world religions at McGill. So Pochereva talked to Paquita Nanton, daycare coordinator of NDG’s St. Monica School, and Peter Ford, the Director of Jeunesse Benny Summer Camp. Together, they helped some 90 grade-school children grow a veritable cornucopia of vegetables in 200 square metres of dirt. Not only did the kids learn about biodiversity and plant biology, they got to eat their bounty, too, with the extra going to the NDG Food Depot. “Some of the kids started out not knowing that lettuce is a leaf,” Pochereva says, “while others were already experts from gardening with their Italian grandparents. But no matter their previous experience, they were all really engaged in watching their food grow.”

In nearby Griffintown, the seeds have been planted for urban renewal on a very different scale. A co-initiative of McGill and the École de tech­nologie supérieure (ÉTS), the Quartier de l’innovation aims to revitalize this part of southwest Montreal. The live-work neighbourhood will bring together knowledge-based industries with education, culture and the arts: a “living lab” where science and technology are publicly accessible.  “It’s an ecosystem to consolidate the things that support innovation, rather than just consolidate the activities themselves,” says the Montreal Neurological Institute’s interim director, Phil Barker, who led the initial internal QI planning committee. “We’re talking about designing something that fosters technological innovation, but also innovation in social, cultural and urban development,” Barker says, “and to do that well, we need broad consultation and partnerships.”

The past year saw McGill’s students and staff use their brains, brawn and spirit to make their home a better place:

McGill Faculty of Law students, in partnership with the School of Social Work and the Faculty of Education, organized “Community Captured,” a photography-based initiative that sought to challenge stereotypes. The team distributed 50 disposable cameras to Montrealers receiving social services and asked that they capture their notions of “community” on film. The project culminated in a photo exhibit on campus, with many of the photographers on site to discuss their work.

Catherine Sabiston, director of McGill’s Health Behaviour and Emotion Lab, partnered with CTV Montreal news anchor Mutsumi Takahashi to launch Lifetime, a TV segment that offers strategies and tips for weight loss and other health challenges.

The McGill community raised $409,500 to help thousands of Montreal­ers in need for its 2011 Centraide campaign.

McGill partnered with the Lions Club to educate Montrealers about common eye diseases that progress without noticeable symptoms. Second-year ophthalmology resident Alice Zhang and fourth-year medical resident Sheila Xi Huang helped organize the lectures and screening clinics.