Throughout the fall of 2024, CAFES and Carleton University partnered with six Community Associations (CA) and Fletcher Wildlife Garden to conduct our 4th annual CAFES-Carleton Community Engagement Project!
The intent for this annual project is for students in a 2nd-year sociology/anthropology course to partner with CA representatives and create products and deliverables that will ultimately benefit the CA's neighbourhood and address particular environmental concerns - with each year having a new topic. This year, the theme of the project was on pollinator gardening, and the class was taught by Professor Phil Primeau, whose expertise was invaluable in guiding the students through such a memorable and engaging experience.
This year, the following Community Associations participated in the project:
For the CA leads, this project was an opportunity to learn and engage with important issues relating to pollinators, biodiversity and gardening in their community, connect with the students in their group, and have their neighbourhoods benefit from the deliverables the students are able to create for them.
A highlight from this year's term was a tour in the second week of class to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden (pictured below). Both CAs and students were able to see the different sites at FWG and learn more about pollinators from experts Sandy Garland, Ted Farnworth, and Dr. Heather Kharouba.
Another highlight was a walking tour in week four led by the CA representatives in each of the participating neighbourhoods. This was an excellent opportunity for the students to see the CA's community gardens, learn about particular issues experienced by the community, and visit important spots in the neighbourhood.
Throughout the term the students analyzed and discussed insights and experiences gained as they brought their conceptual learning from the course together with their experiences working towards real-world objectives in their chosen communities.
This year, the students' ingenuity was evident in their creation of gardening videos, creative social media posts, community garden maps, plant signage, infographics, beautiful posters, news articles, elementary school curriculum activities, high school presentations, community planting events, pollinator dialogue events, and more.
Read on to check out some of the projects and deliverables created by the students for each participating Community Association. Also be sure to read this article from The Charlatan by Marissa Meilleur that features the project!
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1. Hintonburg Community Association - www.hintonburg.com
Students from the Hintonburg group created a variety of stunning graphics, posters and presentations about pollinators as well as plant inventories, labels and maps of all the community gardens in Hintonburg. They created a pollinator gardening school curriculum and activities for grades 4-6 and a workshop for grades 5-6 accompanied by a parent/educator survey. Students also created a brand new social media account. The Hintonburg students designed their projects around the themes of visibility, accessibility and connectivity. Thank you to community leaders Patrick J. and Barbara L. for representing Hintonburg!
Below is an educational presentation created by the students.
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2. Westboro Community Association - www.westborocommunityassociation.ca
The students in the Westboro groups approached their projects around increasing pollinator awareness, education, and engagement. They focused heavily on organizing community events - with one being a successful planting day at Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), another being a presentation to a grade 9 high school class, and yet another being a pollinator talk with Dr. Jessica Forrest. Other deliverables included a pollinator brochure, newspaper article in the Kitchissippi Times (read it here!), and a high school module for a grade 9 Indigenous art class. A huge thank you to Deb C. for working with the students as Westboro's representative!
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3. Centretown Community Association - https://www.centretowncitizens.ca
The students working with Centretown created an outstanding series of "how-to" gardening videos - check them out HERE! They published creative social media posts centred around pumpkin carving and "deck the trees" events in Ottawa, created informational posts every Friday with quizzes on Instagram, designed posters on the Dundonald Park and Frank Street gardens that link to information documents and a DIY garden guide. The students revamped the CA's volunteer on-boarding materials and survey, and actually created new Discord channels for volunteers to use complete with a plant identification bot.
Thank you to Sam R. and Dinah R. for representing the Centretown CA!
Above and below are the posters for the Frank Street and Dundonald Park gardens, and below the posters you will find a video made by the students featuring some of the community garden volunteers.
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4. Overbrook Community Association - www.overbrook.ca
Students in the Overbrook group centred their pollinator projects around enhancing diversity and collaboration with regards to pollinator initiatives. One of their projects was focused around a planting day in October, pictured below. Students created an infographic about pollinators in multiple languages, made a job posting for an OCA volunteer coordinator position, wrote a series of articles about pollinator gardens and community engagement which were published in the ConneXions newspaper, and attended an Overbrook Community Association meeting. Thank you to David F. and Deborah D. for your work representing Overbrook CA!
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5. Glebe Community Association - www.glebeca.ca/
The students created a garden sign to be staked in the Glebe's community gardens with a QR code, beautiful hand-drawn activities designed for school-aged kids to be shared with local schools, an interactive pollinator garden map with various locations throughout the Glebe, a Linktree resource toolkit, five social media posts, and an article in the Glebe Report newspaper - read it here!
The students also participated in the Glebe Farmers market by setting up a table and displaying posters.
Thank you to Della, Jim and Linda for representing the Glebe CA!
Below are the incredible hand-drawn activities created for kids to learn more about pollinator gardening!
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6. Bel Air Community Association - www.belaircommunityassociation.ca/
The Bel Air CA was represented by the Maitland Area Pollinator Project (MAPP).
Students in this group attended the Bel Air CA's Annual General Meeting, created an wonderful commercial/video on taking action for pollinator gardening, went door to door in the neighbourhood to speak with community members about pollinator gardening, created a great infographic on MAPP and the community gardens, and made a new website page including important information about pollinators.
Thank you to Harry, Andrea, and Pam for your participation in this project!
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CAFES would like to extend a huge thank you to all involved, including Professor Phil Primeau, the students, the six Community Associations and their representatives, Dr. Heather Kharouba, and Fletcher Wildlife Garden - especially Sandy and Ted who led the students around the gardens. Meaningful engagement, relationship building and learning was experienced by all involved, and the student projects undoubtedly made a big difference in supporting the creation of a greener, healthier and more sustainable city of Ottawa.
To read more on the previous CAFES - Carleton University community engagement projects, visit the links below:
If you or your Community Association are interested in joining a future community engagement project with CAFES and Carleton University, please contact us at info@cafesottawa.ca!
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