To respond to the war in Syria, researchers from the University of Ottawa launched CMIC. CMIC has grown into a transnational project across five continents for the last seven years. From then, CMIC has hosted workshops with participants in Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Canada from indigenous communities or conflict-affected and refugee communities. Through these workshops, CMIC has explored community-engaged learning and online and blended learning models. Moreover, in 2019, CMIC delivered a series of training of trainers (ToT) workshops to help NGOs with tools to support their teams in mobilizing initiatives with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada.
In 2021, during lockdown, CMIC worked with the University of Ottawa students and other volunteers to continue research and resource development. Students working on translating CMIC materials into French, documenting community mobilizations responding to the COVID-19, and coding research data. This year, CMIC continued its longstanding partnership with LASer, and NGOs supporting secondary and tertiary education for refugees in Tripoli, Lebanon.