Discover the projects of the Winter 2021 cohort of the Civic Incubator

Climate Cell is a community project in Outremont, a borough where commitment to climate action is still weak. However, the solidarity that has emerged around the impact of Covid-19 presents an opportunity to be seized, according to the project’s promoters, to channel this mobilization into the issues of the socio-ecological transition. By setting up Climate Cell in Outremont, its founders are building a think tank made up of members of their team, elected officials from the borough, representatives of partner organizations and members of the community in order to propose and incubate initiatives in favour of the environment and the ecological transition led by the neighbourhood’s residents.

🔎 Climate Cell: mobilizing and supporting citizen climate action in Outremont

The Observatoire québécois des inégalités is observing a marked evolution of social exclusion and precariousness due to the 2020 pandemic. Moreover, the population is increasingly critical of the negative externalities of businesses. However, these criticisms crystallize, above all, around the issue of the carbon footprint. The “inequality footprint” as proposed by the promoters of this project aims to encourage organizations to address the range of negative externalities they generate by creating a footprint comparable to the carbon footprint, but focusing this time on inequalities. The project thus aims to support businesses to better understand their “inequality footprint” and to accompany them in the sustainable implementation of best practices to work towards reducing these inequities.

🔎 Reducing the “Inequalities Footprint” of organizations and focus on inclusion at work

Despite the many Montréal-based initiatives that advocate diversity in governance or within corporations, the definition of diversity currently recognized and used in Québec is incomplete because it does not include the notion of neurodivergence. This project addresses this issue by proposing the creation of a neuroinclusive chamber of commerce, which will bring these voices to the business community and popularize neurodiversity and neuroinclusion in business.

🔎 A neurodiverse person’s quest for an environment that will allow her to blossom

Mon bras droit éduc is aimed at students with disabilities who do not have direct access to the academic support they need and are entitled to, to services such as reading, note-taking, academic support, and physical accompaniment. By developing a platform to connect a person living with a disability with carers, to gather resources and to share the creation of adapted tools to reduce barriers, the project seeks to fill the gaps in the system in order to increase the number of university graduates among students with disabilities and promote their professional integration and social involvement.

🔎 Studying with a disability: “Mon bras droit éduc” platform enhances academic support

The Youth Green House is a community space designed for young people leaving the foster-care system when they come of age. Indeed, having legally become adults, they no longer benefit from the services of the Director of Youth Protection and often find themselves without support and with few resources. Difficulties are even more pronounced for young adults who are racialized. Thanks to this project, these young people will have a safe place that is intended to be a secure and affordable home, fostering community life around which educational activities will be developed.

In Canada, 58% of food is discarded along the bio-food chain, from farm to fork, for an annual total of 35.5 million tons. In order to help reduce this waste, Préserve wants to raise awareness among institutions, businesses and industries, which account for 13% of avoidable food waste, by measuring the amounts of food thrown away and then accompanying stakeholders in the development and application of concrete solutions.

The challenge addressed by HYF Forêts Urbaines is the fight against climate change, heat islands and loss of biodiversity through the planting of fast-growing microforests in urban areas. The proposed solution is the method of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, which consists of planting, on areas as small as 100m² (the equivalent of 6 parking spaces), numerous indigenous species of trees, shrubs and bushes, for an optimal occupation of the vertical space and greater carbon storage. Successfully tested on a small scale in various countries around the world, this method remains to be used in Canada.

🔎 HYF Forêts urbaines: greening cities for better living

Mad (having mental health issues), Disabled and Deaf Artists are still little known in Montréal, and more generally in Québec, and in fact earn less money than other artists. With the will to fight against ableism, this project proposes to develop networking and cooperation with actors in the Montréal cultural community. Thanks to sustainable funding and a referral system, the objective is to contribute to the mainstreaming of these artists and their art in practice and more broadly in society.

(Mad art in the glossary of Canada Council of the Arts)