The Community Mobilization in Crisis project, headquartered at the University of Ottawa, works to enhance the resilience and strength of refugee and host communities in Lebanon, as well as marginalized communities elsewhere, through community mobilization, a process that builds community through participatory, sustained initiatives where community members plan, carry out, and evaluate projects to meet their needs and improve their wellbeing. To that end, we created open-source, multilingual resources that community organizations and educational institutions can use to develop the necessary skills for community mobilization work, as well as to offer educational programs that will provide students drawn from these communities with the skills and tools to help communities identify their own needs and priorities, use available resources, build resilience and become agents of their own community-based solutions. The resources are made by, with and for people in crisis, as we co-create and co-deliver dynamic resources and networks in multiple languages (English, Arabic and French, to date), online and offline, with solid credentials, on accessible digital platforms, and through ‘stackable’ modules, so that even interrupted studies are recognised and validated. In addition, materials can be integrated into existing programs, with civil society organizations and/or international and local educational institutions, to create a wider social and geographic reach. Our partnerships with grassroots organizations and local higher education institutions in Canada, Brazil, Lebanon, Palestine, and Northern Iraq allow us to offer courses and workshops specifically designed to meet the needs of the people we are working with and the context that they are in. As well, our vision is set to design an accredited bridging program in collaboration with a local institution in Lebanon that highlights community mobilizations skills while offering support for marginalized peoples to access higher education. By combining in-class and community based learning with online technology and tools, CMIC aims to not only provide refugee populations with access to higher education but to improve the capacity of refugees to become agents of change in their own communities, particularly in areas where government services have broken down.
