- January 24, 2025 - Espace pour la vie : Sustainable development, Going green, Key projects
As a way of demystifying the natural sciences and encouraging people to take action for protecting biodiversity and the environment, the Espace pour la vie team is getting out to communities right across the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal territory. Nature Near You’s participatory workshops invite citizens to develop an understanding of how neighborhoods, fauna, flora, the river and the people who live in the Montréal area are all interconnected.
Beehives in the city: good idea or bad? What are the benefits of having trees in an urban environment? What do we do to keep cats from attacking small animals? How do we reduce heat islands in summer? Why have plants at home? All of these are issues that have been discussed at workshops in the Nature Near You program.
The formula – creative, educational and scientific workshops offered in collaboration with community organization and partners – invites people to discover their immediate environment in a different way and come up with ideas for action at the local level. The initiative allows them to contribute to efforts aimed at supporting the ecological transition and adapting to climate change, encouraging families to reduce their footprint, or sparking an interest in young people for the natural sciences, for biodiversity and for the jobs of the future that matter to them.
The workshops are invitations to imagine a neighborhood where people and nature live in harmony. The concerns of the participating groups are thus at the heart of the activities offered, whose goals are also to support inclusivity and develop a sense of pride and belonging to one’s community, all this while facilitating intercultural and intergenerational exchanges.
Reaching out to people to get them involved
“In collaboration with a number of partners, we’ve developed teaching material designed to be fun so that we can continue to inspire a sense of wonder outside the walls of the five Espace pour la vie museums,” explains Élise Bois, project officer and coordinator of the Nature Near You program. Based on exchanges and group discussions on themes relating to urban nature, the workshops are an opportunity to ask questions and to invite people to pool their knowledge and experience as they approach their neighborhood from the perspectives of science, art and nature.
The major themes dealt with range from urban biodiversity to light and sound pollution by way of the role played by pollinators in urban environments, greening by way of green lanes and urban gardens, nature as artistic and scientific inspiration, and even “eco-emotions,” the emotional impact of climate change on humans.
“Participants can choose among topics that are relevant to their concerns to see how that connects with their reality,” says Élise Bois. “Questions get asked, facts are laid bare, local initiatives are presented, challenges are issued; there are geographical maps, smells, sounds to listen to, materials to handle… We try to stimulate all the senses in order to generate productive exchanges, drawing on the fields of expertise of the five Espace pour la vie museums and by reaching out to people directly to lower the access bar to our resources” The workshops focus on real-life examples and concrete initiatives, but also on the multisensory approach: a NASA picture of Montréal at night for talking about light pollution; Santropol Roulant’s green roof for discussing urban gardening; herbariums; a warbler’s song; the scent of white spruce; natural elements to be handled, like bark, insect nests or…meteorites.
“We can connect with nature even in town! With the workshops, we’re looking to spark discussions and arouse the curiosity of participants, so that they come out of them acknowledging, yes, nature is very present around us and it’s possible to take steps together to take care of it,” Élise Bois concludes. And the workshops in the Nature Near You program stimulate people to get involved in protecting it.
If you’d like to host a workshop in your organization, consult The Workshops | Espace pour la vie.
The workshops in the Nature Near You program are offered thanks to the financial support of the Secrétariat à la région métropolitaine of the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation as part of the Fonds d’initiative et de rayonnement de la metropole. This initiative is also made possible in part by the support of the Chamandy Foundation and the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal.