CEGEPS, Cities and Cultural centres collaborate for more services
Sonia Roy
Improving access to education, literature, arts and sports, while raising awareness of culture among young people in the Outaouais: that is the mandate of the new agreement signed by the City of Gatineau, the Cégep de l'Outaouais and the Maison de la culture de Gatineau. Since December 6, 2022, several free services have been made available to Cégep de l'Outaouais students, and new protocols concerning the exchange of services between the three partners are in place.
Cégep students can now obtain the Accès Gatineau + card free of charge, which gives them access to Gatineau's municipal libraries and the many activities of the Service des loisirs, des sports et du développement des communautés. They can also acquire the Odyssée card free of charge, which gives them a $4 discount on the price of regular shows at Odyssée Hall or the PNG stage. Finally, students will have exclusive access to pre-sale tickets and will be able to obtain student/group packages for shows at the Maison de la culture de Gatineau.
The City of Gatineau, the Cégep de l'Outaouais and the Maison de la culture de Gatineau have also announced future exchanges of services between the three parties, including the sharing of premises, parking and services. Specifically, the City of Gatineau mentioned that during certain periods, students from the Cégep de l'Outaouais would have access to their broadcasting facilities in order to learn more about the artistic and cultural production professions. Time slots reserved for students are now in effect for certain areas of the Centre sportif de Gatineau, and since December 6, Cégep de l'Outaouais sports teams have had priority access when reserving the synthetic field at the Mont-Bleu complex for practices or games. As for the Cégep de l'Outaouais, its representatives announced the eventual creation of the Techniques de gestion et d'intervention en loisirs program, to train more future professionals in this field. In addition, a site will be developed at 125 Sacré-Coeur Boulevard (Louis-Reboul campus of the Cégep de l'Outaouais) for a community garden. The final sharing of space between the City and the Cégep de l'Outaouais concerns certain rooms at the college: in the event of a major disaster or emergency situation, these rooms will be made available to municipal authorities for emergency accommodation.
A clever sharing of parking spaces between the Cégep de l'Outaouais and the Maison de la culture de Gatineau completes the list of exchanges of services between the three signatories of this partnership agreement, which is part of a community initiative, without exchange of funds. The 125 parking spaces at the Maison de la culture de Gatineau will be accessible during the day to students at the Cégep de l'Outaouais' Félix-Leclerc campus. In return, the Cégep de l'Outaouais has committed to offering nearly 300 parking spaces on the Félix-Leclerc campus (evenings and weekends) to people attending the Maison de la culture de Gatineau and the Centre sportif de Gatineau. Like the Mayor of Gatineau, France Bélisle, and the President of the Board of Directors of the Maison de la culture de Gatineau, Claude Beaulieu, Steve Brabant, Director General of the Cégep de l'Outaouais, commented on the news, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the protocol: "We are very proud of this historic agreement, which will allow us to increase the collaboration and synergy between our organizations and to maximize the usefulness of and access to our infrastructures in a perspective of efficiency and sustainable development. This agreement will also contribute to increasing access to sports, outdoor activities, arts and culture for more than 5,000 students, as well as for the entire Outaouais community."
Photo credit: courtesy of Ville de Gatineau.
Photo caption: (from left to right) Claude Beaulieu, Steve Fournier (Director General of the Maison de la culture de Gatineau) Steve Brabant and France Bélisle.
