His community group draws in kids with basketball. Then the real work begins

CBC Quebec is highlighting people from the province's Black communities who are giving back, inspiring others and helping to shape our future. These are the 2023 Black Changemakers.

Early in the pandemic, isolated seniors in Montreal's Saint-Léonard borough started getting postcards in the mail. They were notes of encouragement from teenage basketball players who called themselves ambassadeurs du vivre ensemble — ambassadors of togetherness.

For Beverley Jacques, who helped come up with the idea, the postcard campaign was one more way to spark change in the east-end Montreal borough that's home to DOD Basketball, the non-profit agency he's headed for the past two decades, since he was 23 years old.

"I always wanted to make a change in the area that I was living in," he said. "I don't want to use the words 'give back,' but I have to get involved."

The game is still the main draw behind DOD Basketball, whose acronym stands for "do or die" — the name of a well-known basketball drill. Each week, Jacques and his coaches welcome about 200 players between the ages of 8 and 17 to a gym for games or practices.

However, "DOD Basketball doesn't only do basketball," says Jacques.

"It's a tool that we use to get more kids, to attract more kids, not to play basketball, but for the other programs that we have."

The postcard campaign was a natural fit — a way to help knit the community together more tightly, by connecting neighbourhood youth to seniors.

"We're really trying to put our hands on the cultural aspect of the borough," Jacques said.

When it first launched, DOD Basketball focused on organizing tournaments. By 2006, children were signing up for basketball lessons and to join teams that regularly competed.

It became the first