Beyond the schoolyard

These training sessions will be funded through a three-year subsidy of $300,000 coming from the FAQDD fund (Fonds d’action québécois pour le développement durable – the Quebec Action Fund for Sustainable Development). According to Gilles Vaillancourt, mayor of Laval and chairman of the Conference of Elected Representatives of Laval, (CRÉ), "The awareness aspect was an idea whose time was past due.” The funds invested, says the mayor, when added to the work of AQPERE (the Quebec Association for the advancement of environmental education) will allow Laval institutions “to become veritable schools of eco-citizenship.”

In addition to managing the FAQDD funds, AQPERE president Robert Litzler says his organization will also oversee the training of teachers, parents and students and the implementation of projects.

At a press conference held this past week, Mr. Litzler explained that the program can assist school communities familiarize themselves with the notions of sustainable development, health and environment. Other activities will orient participants toward composting, the ecological lunch bag, and the possibilities of forming green groups.

Roger La Roche, principal training coordinator for AVEC and professor of environmental management at Collège Rosemont, says the Laval program is the only one of its kind in North America. On an international scale, “The closest to it is a project in Norway which involves 12 schools,” Mr. La Roche specifies.

FAQDD director-general Véronique Jampierre says “The whole of Quebec can use this kind of project.”

To present the notions of sustainable development and eco-citizenship in common terms, the CRÉ de Laval has issued a pedagogical guide produced under the supervision of Claude Villeneuve, Chair of the Eco-Council of the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi. The guide is available on the CRÉ website as well as that of UNESCO.