Saint Paul University opens the Mauril-Bélanger Social Innovation Workshop and announces the creation of major awards for future students of the Élisabeth-Bruyère School of Social Innovation

Ottawa, April 6, 2018 – During the opening of the Mauril-Bélanger Social Innovation Workshop, Saint Paul University confirmed the creation of awards totalling $500,000, which will contribute to the financial support of students. These awards will be offered during the 2018–2019 school year to students registered in the B.A. in Social Innovation or the Graduate Diploma in Social Organization Development. The recipients – students dealing with particular challenges (such as first-generation students, Indigenous students, students in financial need or coming from disadvantaged areas) – must have demonstrated their involvement in the community, their desire for social justice as well as their ability to be bridge builders.

The creation of these awards was made possible thanks to the pooling of contributions from Desjardins Group, Domicile Developments Inc., the late Claude Bernard, the late Marcel Lefebvre, the late Fr. Adrien Noël and an anonymous donor. They will primarily serve to make post-secondary studies more accessible to students who want to tackle social justice programs, which could have a major impact on the community.

“I am very proud to participate today in the opening of the Mauril-Bélanger Social Innovation Workshop. Created within the Élisabeth Bruyère School of Social Innovation, the Workshop was made possible thanks to donations totalling $700,000 and an investment of $500,000 from the University. As a dynamic gathering place, the Workshop will help to reduce poverty, resolve problems in the community and strengthen community capacity to create jobs in the social innovation and entrepreneurship sectors,” said Chantal Beauvais, rector of Saint Paul University.

“The Workshop aims to offer a space for working collaboratively, training and knowledge transfer, as well as to support initiatives, organizations and social innovation enterprises. The Workshop also wants to ensure a link between the community and the Élisabeth-Bruyère School of Social Innovation, by creating partnerships with local organizations and giving students the opportunity to have an experience that will complete their general formation,” concluded Anahi Morales Hudon, director of the Mauril-Bélanger Social Innovation Workshop.

About Mauril Bélanger
Mauril Bélanger was elected a member of Parliament in 1995, in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier, a position he held for the next 21 years. He was parliamentary secretary to the Hon. Sheila Copps, then was minister of several portfolios in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin, in particular as minister responsible for Official Languages and for Democratic Reform. He cofounded the Canada–Africa Parliamentary Association with the Conservative senator Raynell Andreychuk, and led a number of multi-party Canadian delegations to various parts of Africa. We will always remember him for his dedication to the community, his determination, his dignity and his unfailing support for those who needed it most.

About Saint Paul University
Saint Paul University (1848) is the founding college of the University of Ottawa, with which it has been federated since 1965. Bilingual and on a human scale, it offers programmes in canon law, conflict studies, counselling and psychotherapy, human relations, philosophy, public ethics, social communication, social innovation, and theology.