Beverley Jacques is a “real force” for change in Saint-Léonard. She started DOD basketball 20 years ago
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Early on in the pandemic, seniors living alone in Montreal’s Saint-Léonard borough began receiving postcards. They were notes of support from teenagers who played basketball and signed themselves.Ambassadeurs du vivre ensemblebringing people together.
Beverley Jacques, who helped come up with the idea, saw the postcard campaign as one more way to bring about change in the east-end Montreal borough where DOD Basketball, the non-profit organization he’s been running since he was 23 years old, is located.
“I’ve always wanted to move away from where I lived,” he said. “I don’t want to say, “Give back,” but I have to do something.”
DOD Basketball, whose name comes from the well-known basketball drill “do or die,” is still mostly about the game. About 200 players between the ages of 8 and 17 come to games or practices with Jacques and his coaches every week.
Jacques says, “DOD Basketball doesn’t just play basketball.”
“It’s a tool we use to bring in more kids, not so they can play basketball, but for the other programs we have.”
The postcard campaign was a natural fit. It was a way to help bring younger and older people in the neighborhood closer together.
Jacques said, “We’re really trying to get involved in the cultural side of the borough.”
Beyond basketbal
When DOD Basketball first started, it was mostly about setting up tournaments. By 2006, kids were signing up to take basketball lessons and play on teams that competed regularly.
It was the first group in Quebec that didn’t make money to work with Nike on a basketball camp for kids.
Jacques thinks that about 7,000 players have been a part of DOD basketball since it began. Some of these players are now DOD coaches or staffers.
As the organization’s reach grew, Jacques said he realized that DOD needed to do more than give kids a way to use their energy.
“If the neighborhood isn’t doing well, I could take the same kid to the gym for two hours a day, but if he goes back to the same neighborhood, we’ll always have the same problem,” he said.
‘Bridges to social activism
Nancy Rebelo, a history professor at Dawson College who lives in Saint-Léonard and has known Jacques for many years, said that he has an innate ability to connect with young people, figure out what they want, and fight for them.
Rebelo said, “He’s very good at figuring out what the problem is and then coming up with a solution that brings people together or helps them work together.”
“He kind of gets young people to follow him by using things they like, like basketball, music, and all this other stuff.” Then, by doing that, he builds these ways for people to get involved in social issues.
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Rebelo said that Jacques was a big part of giving scared and tense young people a way to calm down.
She said, “He held a lot of meetings where young people just showed up and talked about what was going on, how they felt, and why they thought it was going on.”
“He has a lot of power in that area.”
So, what started out as a way to organize basketball tournaments for young people has grown into something much bigger.
Jacques says that right now, for example, DOD Basketball is working on a program called Évasion to help teens who are more likely to do bad things.
He said, “I got my hands dirty trying to lay the groundwork.” “It’s been twenty years, and here we are.”
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