Sherbrooke, September 22, 2023 – It was with great pleasure that members of TES’ team travelled to the Université de Sherbrooke to hand over their share of the André Delisle bursary in civic participation to the three student recipients, at the end of the mentoring program that accompanied it.
As a reminder, last May, convinced of the importance of giving back to the community and playing an active role in the development of the next generation, TES donated $75,000 to the Centre universitaire de formation en environnement et en développement durable de l’Université Sherbrooke (CUFE) for the creation of the Bourse André Delisle en participation citoyenne, aimed at supporting the next generation.
In addition to a cash bursary, the student team has benefited in recent months from Transfert’s support, thanks to Véronique Frigon, Project Director and Office Manager for Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, and Laurence Moreau, Project Manager, who offered individualized mentoring to recipients Angie Chapdelaine, Julie Mansour, and Frédérick Turgeon during their session.
This first mentoring experience showed beyond any doubt the positive impact that personalized coaching can have on public participation projects, as well as on the mobilization of the next generation.
“Coaching Angie, Julie and Frédérick was a real pleasure. Their passion, determination and curiosity were contagious, and every moment spent guiding them through their project gave me the opportunity to grow professionally. Seeing the next generation get excited about such a mandate was refreshing and highly motivating!” emphasizes Laurence Moreau.
As part of their course at CUFE, the selected group of students had to develop a public consultation plan for the Organisme de bassin versant du Lac-Saint-Jean, with a view to revising their water master plan (PDE). More specifically, the team’s mission was to develop a complete, turnkey public consultation plan in preparation for the launch of consultations scheduled for this fall, which they achieved with flying colors.
“Thanks to the mentoring offered by TES, I received tremendously constructive and useful guidance from Laurence and Véronique. They took the time to understand us, our project, and our needs. At each meeting, we took the time to identify our priorities, which made each hour we spent together extremely valuable. They always went beyond our expectations: They offered coaching on new tasks that required a higher level of expertise, resources to go further on tasks we had already started, guidelines to circumscribe our project and help us stay within our budget, and feedback on work accomplished. They were human, genuine, and very educational. They enabled us to take our work further and to strive for excellence,” explains Frédérick Turgeon.
“At TES, we believe that coaching and mentoring are powerful tools for personal and professional development. Our team is proud and happy to be able to offer mentoring sessions to CUFE student teams. It’s clearly a win-win formula, and we look forward to the future of this great coaching program,” concludes Alexandra Boileau, TES’ Director of Operations and Partner.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the advancement of environmental and public participation research is invited to donate to the Environmental Clinic or to contribute to the Université Sherbrooke’s Choisir de changer l’avenir campaign.
Students wishing to obtain further information on the André Delisle Fellowship in Public Participation should contact the Centre universitaire de formation en environnement et développement durable directly.
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About Transfert Environnement et Société:
An impact firm specializing in social acceptability and public participation, TES’ mission is to build bridges between project proponents and their host communities. With its talented team, TES works with companies in the mining, industrial, land development, transportation, and renewable energy sectors. TES’ unique expertise aims to reconcile the business objectives of companies with the socio-economic, community and environmental needs and expectations of local communities. TES advocates a win-win approach for organizations, civil society, citizens, and the environment.