The interest in the development of neighbourhood houses in British Columbia is on the rise. In order to address the needs of emerging neighbourhood houses, the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia and the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of Greater Vancouver have formed a partnership to develop a research project that will create a manual and tool kit for neighbourhood house development. This project is designed with a view to support, inform, and help new and emerging neighbourhood houses move from their current level of services and programs to socially inclusive, multi-service, multi-functional neighbourhood houses.
We are collecting the experiences and best practices of experts in the neighbourhood and settlement house movement, not only in BC, but beyond the Province’s boundaries, across North America and Europe. A community Advisory Committee has been established to ensure that the final product meets the local needs of individual neighbourhood houses in building capacity and furthering the neighbourhood house movement.
This is the first project of its kind and is setting precedents in community capacity building. The project will make available the collected, collated, and applied neighbourhood house development practices and knowledge that can then be transferred to communities and community members across Canada and around the world. It will provide a hands-on, step-by-step manual for neighbourhood residents, resident groups, and emerging organizations interested in establishing new/emerging neighbourhood houses in their own communities. It is believed that the products of this project will be of great use, benefit, and value to the thousands of neighbourhood houses in Canada and in various corners of the world.
For further details, please visit us online at www.anhgv.org or e-mail Mamie Hutt Temoana, ANH CEO at (mhtemoana@anhgv.org) or Dr. Miu Chung Yan, Principal Investigator at (miu.yan@ubc.ca), or Jocelyn Yu, Project Intern at joyu@shaw.ca.