Neighbours Growing Neighbourhoods

Neighbours Growing Neighbourhoods involves outreach, consultation, public participation and listening. The Neighbourhood House aims to engage the community in decision-making, planning and action. This brings people together, allows them to discuss important community issues or neighbourhood problems, and to work along side one another in bringing about change and building the kind of community we all want and need.

We believe:

In grass roots, organic development that encourages people to contribute their ideas and time;
In meeting people where they are;
That people are the experts;
That people most affected by an issue are the most qualified to work on it;
That community building is done with the community; and
That community means listening, opening doors, creating hope, supporting, and fostering relationships, one at a time.

Some of our Neighbours Growing Neighbourhood projects include:

City Core Safety Task Force – a project of local citizens to create local responses to issues of resident safety

The Lower Lonsdale Community Garden in partnership with the Community Garden Society and the City of North Vancouver

Community Resident Engagement Workers (CREW) at Grant McNeil Housing Development in partnership with B.C. Housing and the City of North Vancouver

Youth Leadership – an innovative partnership between Creative Tool Box (Jeff Willis), our staff at the John Braithwaite Community Centre and the youth of North Vancouver

Lower Lonsdale Fall Festival - this collaboration with local business, the Lower Lonsdale Business Association and others brings the community together in an annual celebration.

Welcoming Neighbourhoods – a collaboration between all lower mainland Neighbourhood Houses, the Ministry of the Attorney General (Settlement and Multiculturalism Division) and the North Shore Multicultural Society.

Neighbourhood Small Grants Program The North Shore Neighbourhood House awarded $15,000 in 2011 to 40 projects ranging from $50 to $500 in; Lower Lonsdale, Inter Rivers (Lillooet –Lynnmour Area), Ridgeway/ Moodyville and Lynn Valley communities. These projects were organized by local residents and intended to strengthen North Shore communities, build relationships and enhance individual skills in the community.