Mission and purpose

The Oasis Bellechasse is a project that emerges from an approach called “Our living environments” coordinated by Solon, the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition and several partners from community and social economy. The project aims to co-construct with citizens a vision of the future for each of the living environments identified and to develop collective solutions to make it a reality. The Oasis Bellechasse is one of the collective solutions identified and implemented in the Bellechasse sector, selected for the project.

The objectives of the “Our living environments” project are the mobilization and support of citizens in the development of capacities, and the fight against climate change in living environments. The objectives of Oasis Bellechasse are as follows:

- Animation of public spaces and strengthening of the social fabric

- Calming traffic and securing the neighborhood

- Citizen reappropriation, neighborhood vitality and improvement of the quality of life

- Greening of the city [i]

Origins and development

The living environment: A little-frequented public square and an area of strong citizen mobilization

The “Our living environments” project was initiated in October 2016 by Solon, Coop Carbone, the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition and the Center for the Study of Social Responsibility and Ecocitizenship. Solon is in charge of the mobilization capacity and the co-creation process of the project, Coop Carbone is in charge of technical expertise, the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition participates in project documentation and knowledge transfer, in conjunction with the Center for Social Responsibility and Eco-citizenship [ii]. These organizations constitute a steering committee, in charge of identifying living environments within which to mobilize citizens [iii]. The choice of the district in which to deploy the citizens' initiative is therefore up to the organizations facilitating the project.

The “living environment” refers to the different targets targeted by the project: a certain degree of citizen mobilization, a diversity of socioeconomic profiles, a diversity of commercial vitality, diversity in access to collective mobility and the presence of others. facilitating conditions [iv]. Two areas of intervention are selected following this evaluation by the steering committee, including the Bellechasse sector. The latter was chosen for the presence of a strong citizen mobilization on the territory, which is expressed in particular by the many projects of green alleys in the district [v]. These also testify to a degree of cooperation between citizens and the district, open to participatory approaches in the management of public space.

The location chosen for the Bellechasse sector project corresponds to a public square with little traffic. Place Hector-Prud'homme is located at the entrance to Plaza Saint-Hubert, in an area with high commercial density. Inaugurated in 2009 by the City of Montreal, this mineral square was designed as a multipurpose space "which also allows for the holding of various community and entertainment activities" [vi].

A process of co-creating a vision for the future

To follow up on the selection phase of living environments, the Solon organization, in cooperation with local partners, and more specifically by the green lane committees of the sector, mobilized the citizens of the Bellechasse sector to hold 8 workshops. discussion between April and August 2017. The objective of the meetings was to produce a diagnosis of the living environment, formulate motivations for carrying out the project and define projects to be carried out. Field visits completed the participatory system aimed at co-constructing visions of the future for the Bellechasse sector.

If the district is considered friendly and pleasant by the participants, it is also a victim of security and traffic issues. The motivations for the project are therefore aimed at slowing down traffic, improving safety and greening the living environment. Among the projects proposed in response to the targeted issues: alley chores, developments protecting pedestrians and cyclists and guaranteeing them safe mobility, night lighting in the alleys. The vision offuture developed at the end of the workshops focuses on "the animation of public spaces, calming traffic and anchoring in an urban fabric marked by a major shopping street" [vii]. The project mainly brings together citizens who are already active, involved in other collective projects [viii].

A lively public square

At the end of the discussions, the citizens of the neighborhood are supported in the development of collective solutions for the neighborhood. Among the projects proposed for the Bellechasse sector, it is the development of a public square as a lively meeting place within the district that is selected. The Oasis Bellechasse thus takes place in February 2018 in the Hector-Prud'homme public square.

The reflections initiated during the project are extended by seven participating citizens who constitute the collective of the Oasis Bellechasse project. “Collective Wednesdays”, carried by the citizens of the collective, bring together once a month the citizens of the district to discuss the issues of the living environment, the animation and the management of the public square. Thus, the co-management approach is continued beyond the “Our living environments” project.

The Oasis Bellechasse is a green space made up of various temporary rest and relaxation facilities, such as picnic tables, a book box, a platform, armchairs, in order to transform the Hector-Prud mineral square. man in a public place where to rest, meet and exchange. The activities held during the summer season are numerous and varied: meditation, concerts, storytelling, dance workshops, creative workshops, children's games, drawing, cinema, etc. [ix] thanks to numerous partnerships.

Organizational structure, membership and funding

Organizational structure

The organizational structure of Oasis Bellechasse resumes in a certain way the co-creation process initiated by the “Our living environments” project. Thus, the collective in charge of the management of the public square is made up of ten members, including seven residents of the district, accompanied by a member of the Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough and two members of the facilitating organizations Solon and the Center for the study of social responsibility and eco-citizenship [x].

The structure is based on the holding of monthly “collective Wednesdays”, which bring together citizens interested in the project to reflect on the neighborhood in transition and the solutions to be provided. Citizens are invited to participate in many ways: through online surveys soliciting programming ideas, by holding monthly meetings and by participating in co-creative workshops to build, maintain and green the spatial arrangements. . The collective's Facebook page allows citizens to communicate and engage with the project. It is followed by more than 500 subscribers [xi].

Funding, donations and services

The co-creation process resulting from the “Our living environments” project was made possible thanks to a grant from the Action-Climat Québec program, from the Québec Action Fund for Sustainable Development [xii]. To ensure the completion of the project selected for Place Hector Prud'homme, funding of $ 10,000 from the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough was obtained in 2018. It was used to animate the site for the summer period. and the purchase of building materials [xiii]. This funding was supplemented by the allocation in 2018 of a scholarship of $ 3,000 by participants in the participatory budget "Round trip" organized by the provincial deputy of the sector, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, for the distribution of his discretionary budget. . This funding is renewed in 2019 [xiv] for the development and animation of the space.

Finally, the Oasis Bellechasse is part of a commercial sector, at the entrance to Plaza Saint-Hubert and also benefits from donations and services from local merchants. The neighboring business The mirrored cabinet thus lends picnic tables to the Oasis Bellechasse, since the development of rest areas within the sector encourages its customers in return [xv].

Specializations, methods and tools

An experimentation process initiated by a network of institutional actors

The “Our living environments” project is based on a theoretical approach to transition and an experimentation process. Through experimentation, the project stakeholders put forward a concrete learning process for change and ecological transitionin a context of uncertainty which characterizes global problems. This learning-by-doing takes up the theoretical base of the transitions approach, that is to say “implementing reflexive governance systems which consist in generating and integrating networks of actors and of innovation which reinforce each other through their actions, experiments, projects and practices ”[xvi]. Thus, in the case of the “Our living environments” project, the steering committee is made up of the association of two community organizations, Solon and Coop Carbone, and a research organization, the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition. In addition, the project governance committee integrates a network of community and innovation organizations, such as the Social Economy Worksite, Innovative Territories in Social and Solidarity Economy (TIESS), the Center d ' study in social responsibility and eco-citizenship (CERSÉ), the Rosemont Environmental Development Company (SODER), L'Esplanade, Fondaction and CIRODD. These multiple actors help to diversify the expertise in order to be able to measure and report on the impacts of the project since "Our living environments" emerges from a questioning of community actors on the potential of existing green lane projects to contribute to the transition. ecological. It is therefore important to mobilize many actors to measure and evaluate the effects of the projects deployed. The Oasis Bellechasse is therefore not the result of a citizens' initiative as such. Rather, the project stems from a questioning of actors from community and innovation circles who will in return mobilize and support the emergence of local citizen initiatives.

The project therefore aims to "put in place a structured and reflective process through which local partners, citizens and a group of researchers identify the needs and issues of sustainability and undertake to develop pilot projects making it possible to act and learn about the transition ”[xvii]. To do this, an iterative approach is implemented, following these different steps:

• Creation of a steering committee, assessment and identification of living environments
• Mobilization of living environments and development of desirable visions of the future
• Identification of a diagnosis
• Formulation of motivations
• Definition of projects to be undertaken
• Definition of a vision for the future
• Selection of projects and implementation
• Transfer

The project, if it enabled the realization of the Oasis Bellechasse, nevertheless shows a certain gap between the expectations of the citizens involved and of the steering committee from the community. The temporalities are different. On the one hand, citizens' time is voluntary and therefore counted. He is punctual, punctuated by evenings and weekends. We must therefore maximize it and prevent the involvement of citizens from appearing in vain over time. On the other hand, the duration of the project is marked by identified phases, by the intensity of citizen involvement and by impacts linked to the requirements of donors [xviii]. The project therefore develops at a distance from concrete citizens' initiatives emerging directly from citizens.

Scope of the project

The “Our living environments” project ends with a transfer phase. The Oasis Bellechasse therefore resembles a pilot project, destined to be reproduced in other areas of the borough. The success of Oasis Bellechasse has thus enabled the creation of a funding program for the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough. In February 2019, the latter implemented “Citizen participatory projects” which offers residents the opportunity to take charge of the greening and animation of vacant spaces or public places thanks to the granting of a grant of $ 10,000 per project and through support from the Montreal Urban Ecology Center and Solon [xix]. The project is therefore intended to be replicated in 25 sectors of the borough. Building on the learning at the end of the ideation phase of the Oasis Bellechasse, the “Citizen participatory projects” require an emerging mobilization of citizens themselves and not of community actors.

Major projects and events

Initiatives carried out

• Ideation and arrangement: collective Wednesdays, co-creation workshop, arrangement, plantations, construction of furniture, maintenance
• Festive events and cultural activities: concerts, exhibitions, inauguration, back-to-school party, cinema, storytelling, collaborative games, family activities, meditation,
• Workshops and courses: introduction to permaculture, drawing, making solar lights, making notebooks, dancing, sculpture, introduction to town planning

Supported initiatives

• 100 in 1 day: international day of citizen collaboration

Publications

Cities, “The urban commons. Views of Montreal and Barcelona ”, April 2019. http://cities-ess.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CITIES_fiche-communs-6_2.pdf

Lande & Solon, “Ecocitoyenne Action Laboratory”, June 2019. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1njVaYkXC3Oe9NGoI-OeVQjAXjPQwQeFe/view

René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back on the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, February 6, 2019. https://chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp- content / uploads / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-an-experimentation-of-transition.pdf

See as well

https://solon-collectif.org/oasis-bellechasse/

https://www.facebook.com/oasisbellechasse/

https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=7357,143072094&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

Notes

[i] Solon, “Oasis Bellechasse”, https://solon-collectif.org/oasis-bellechasse/

René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back on the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, February 6, 2019. https://chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp- content / uploads / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-an-experimentation-of-transition.pdf

[ii] Cities, “Urban commons. Views of Montreal and Barcelona ”, April 2019. http://cities-ess.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CITIES_fiche-communs-6_2.pdf

[iv] René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back on the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, February 6, 2019. https://chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp- content / uploads / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-an-experimentation-of-transition.pdf

[v] CITIES, “Urban commons. Views of Montreal and Barcelona ”, April 2019. http://cities-ess.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CITIES_fiche-communs-6_2.pdf

[vi] Ville de Montréal, “Inauguration of place Hector-Prud'homme on Plaza Saint-Hubert,” June 23, 2009. http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_dad=portal&_pageid=5798 , 42657625 & _schema = PORTAL & id = 12543 & ret = http: //ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/url/page/prt_vdm_fr/rep_annonces_ville/rep_communiques/communiques

[vii] René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back to the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, 6, February 2019.s / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-experimentation-de-transition.pdf "target =" _ blank "> https: //chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2019/02/Le-projet-Nos-milieux-de-vie-Retour-sur-les-premieres-phases-dune-experimentation- de-transition.pdf

[viii] CITIES, “Urban commons. Views of Montreal and Barcelona ”, April 2019. http://cities-ess.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CITIES_fiche-communs-6_2.pdf

[ix] https://www.facebook.com/oasisbellechasse/

[x] Solon, “Oasis Bellechasse”, https://solon-collectif.org/oasis-bellechasse/

[xi] https://www.facebook.com/oasisbellechasse/

[xii] Cities, “The urban commons. Views of Montreal and Barcelona ”, April 2019. http://cities-ess.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CITIES_fiche-communs-6_2.pdf

[xiii] Emmanuel Delacour, “New public places supported by citizens”, Metro, June 13, 2018. https://journalmetro.com/local/rosemont-la-petite-patrie/1619296/de-nouvelles-places-publiques -portees-pas-les-citizens /? fbclid = IwAR1chQ3Tgtv10G7A5oLdbKg_wg01_wLjG3EeIw6zwxlRljLQxr-ZeFlxbYo

[xiv] Emmanuel Delacour, “Six organizations from Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie share $ 15,000” Metro, March 20, 2018. https://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/1464012/six-organismes-de-rosemont -the-little-fatherland-share-15-000 /

[xv] https://www.facebook.com/oasisbellechasse/

[xvi] René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back on the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, February 6, 2019. https://chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp- content / uploads / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-an-experimentation-of-transition.pdf

[xvii] René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back on the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, February 6, 2019. https://chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp- content / uploads / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-an-experimentation-of-transition.pdf

[xviii] René Audet, Ian Segers, Mathilde Manon, “The project Our living environments. Back on the first phases of a transition experiment in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie »Contributions from the UQAM Research Chair on ecological transition, February 6, 2019. https://chairetransition.esg.uqam.ca/wp- content / uploads / sites / 48/2019/02 / The-project-Our-environments-of-life-Return-to-the-first-phases-of-an-experimentation-of-transition.pdf

[xix] Emmanuel Delacour, “Rosemont launches its Citizen Participatory Projects” program, Metro, February 8, 2019. https://journalmetro.com/local/rosemont-la-petite-patrie/2114491/rosemont-lance-son-programme- participatory-citizen-projects /