At GICS 2025, the Conseil québécois de la coopération et de la mutualité (CQCM) is helping us design and lead the summit’s educational activities. This partnership highlights their expertise and strengthens the educational and collaborative impact of the event.
As Marie-Pier Reid and Jessica Cabana remind us:
“Cooperative education is about giving everyone the means to actively contribute to change.”
We spoke with them about their mission and their role at this major international gathering.
Jessica Cabana (Youth Cooperative Entrepreneurship Advisor | Montréal and Laval regions)
Marie-Pier Reid (Education Advisor)
GICS: To begin, could you introduce the CQCM and explain your role within the Quebec cooperative movement?
Jessica: “The CQCM is the umbrella organization that represents and supports the entire cooperative and mutualist movement in Quebec. We play a key role in representation, education, and mobilization, and we help promote cooperatives and mutuals across all sectors of activity.”
Marie-Pier: “It is also a true reference in cooperative education: we develop tools, programs, and innovative initiatives that inspire both in Quebec and internationally. Our mission is to contribute to Quebec’s social and economic development by supporting the full growth of the cooperative and mutualist movement, in accordance with the principles and values of the International Cooperative Alliance.”
Jessica: “Concretely, our fields of action are consultation, representation, monitoring, promotion, education, and coordination of cooperative development. As a Youth Cooperative Entrepreneurship Advisor, I help foster entrepreneurial spirit and cooperative and mutualist knowledge among young people through collaborative and complex learning experiences.”
Marie-Pier: “As for me, as an Education Advisor, I work on developing skills by creating educational tools and building partnerships between our member organizations and academic institutions.”
GICS: What will be the CQCM’s contribution to GICS 2025 and why is it important for you to participate?
Jessica: “At the Global Innovation Cooperative Summit 2025, our team will put its expertise at the service of the organization to develop collaborative workshops. These workshops will allow participants to identify common challenges, use intercooperation to find possible solutions, and encourage the transfer of expertise leading to concrete actions.”
Marie-Pier: “Before the event, we will design workshops around the summit’s main themes: Empowering Ourselves to Act, Building Trust Together, and Co-Creating Inclusive and Sustainable Change. And on-site, we will be there to ensure the smooth running of workshops and innovation labs, while supporting volunteers, facilitators, and participants.”
Jessica: “For us, it is a great source of pride to take part in such a major international event. It allows us to fully play our role as a catalyst and amplifier of Quebec’s cooperative and mutualist movement. It is also a unique opportunity to strengthen our ties with partners worldwide and to share inspiring practices.”
GICS: What educational tools or concrete methods will you use during the summit to foster exchanges among participants?
Marie-Pier: “We will implement an approach based on cooperative and complex learning, which is at the heart of our educational vision. This method aims to establish positive interdependence among participants so that everyone is actively and fairly involved.”
Jessica: “The workshops and innovation labs will be designed as true spaces of experimentation, conducive to the expression of collective intelligence. We believe that all people have equal value, that they naturally have the ability to learn and generate ideas, and that each individual has unique skills. We also place great importance on the affective and rational dimensions of mobilizing human potential, and we structure peer interaction to stimulate creativity and social skills.”
Marie-Pier: “These principles will guide our facilitation of activities. We will highlight educational tools that promote shared responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.”
GICS: How will your activities make the sharing of experiences and knowledge more interactive and accessible for an international audience?
Jessica: “During the workshops, participants will be invited to respond to thematic questions using a specific format. This approach allows each person to share their perspective, regardless of the language they speak or their role within their organization.”
Marie-Pier: “Thanks to this method, discussions will be rich, inclusive, and innovative. And especially during the What Have We Learned? sessions, participants will discover the key insights from other workshops, giving them a clear view of the effectiveness of collective intelligence.”
GICS: What do you hope participants will take away from your contribution and the experience offered by the CQCM at GICS 2025?
Marie-Pier: “We hope that each participant will have an enriching and transformative experience, both individually and collectively.”
Jessica: “The workshops will allow everyone to actively contribute to co-creating solutions, while valuing the knowledge, experiences, and unique skills of each person. We hope this approach will give them the power to act, to build trust together, and to co-create inclusive and sustainable change that will inspire them to take action in their own organizations.”
