Peace Builders : new pilot project in Victoriaville, QC
In March 2011, Katimavik announced its decision to leave Victoriaville, Quebec after a fruitful five-year partnership. But Martin Yelle, coordinator at Centre Emmaüs des Bois-Francs and community partner, thought there was more work to be done. Why not mobilise the community and municipality to keep Katimavik in Victoriaville? This was the beginning of a successful partnership between Katimavik and Centre Emmaüs, which came to fruition last January 4, when 11 youth inaugurated the Peace Builders pilot project.
While the pilot project maintains Katimavik’s founding principals, it is different in that all volunteers between the ages of 17 and 21 are Francophones from Eastern Canada. Interestingly enough, many are alumni of Katimavik’s regular programs. In fact, since this project is community funded, Katimavik alumni are eligible to participate.
Its volunteers are also invested in an important municipal cause: peace, or more specifically, the prevention of violence and intimidation. The Centre Emmaüs and Katimavik are also associated with Tools of Peace, a network of organisations promoting peace, in order to develop a community mentorship initiative to prevent violence and intimidation. Through interactive strategies such as photos, interviews and interactive theatre, the volunteers’ mission is to collect information on acts of violence and intimidation in schools and youth organisations partnered with the project. In addition, they will identify available resources and be responsible for a community forum in order to mobilise Victoriaville’s key players and general population to work on preventative strategies.
In the spirit of Katimavik, volunteers will also get to experience a one-month English-language immersion: woofing in a rural Anglophone community in Atlantic Canada.
This project is the first of its kind to be entirely community initiated and funded by a number of sources such as the municipality of Victoriaville, the Fonds régional d’investissement jeunesse du Centre-du-Québec (FJCQ and CRECQ), Quebec Peace Grantmakers Network and other local foundations. We hope it will be a model for other communities. Funding for the project is planned for the next two years and may be extended to three years, with one cohort for six months of each year.
