“Twenty-five years ago, 20 years ago, it was like a dream that we had as residents."
Chief executive officer of Burnaby Neighbourhood House, Antonia Beck, turned that dream into reality 25 years ago and now has lots to show for it.
This year, neighbourhood houses in Burnaby that bring people together are celebrating a quarter of a century in operations.
At 16 years of age, Beck began her journey of going from neighbourhood house to neighbourhood house, helping those in need of a sense of belonging, connecting and community.
A Burnaby resident, Beck previously was the program director at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House before realizing her home and community could use the same support.
“The neighbourhood house started really with a group of residents in south Burnaby that knew and had experienced neighbourhood house in Vancouver," Beck said.
“We decided as residents, that Burnaby could use a neighbourhood house. Burnaby didn’t really know what a neighbourhood house was or what the potential could be."
“When we started, it was really people living in Burnaby, including myself, were working or had some sort of experience with neighbourhood houses in Vancouver and we saw this vision for neighbourhood house, that Burnaby could use a house."
The neighbourhood house brings people together to meet and help form important connections, and as an area like Burnaby, it can be hard to form friendships and interactions.
“When you’re in an urban setting like Burnaby, it’s even more difficult because you’ve got condos and you know you don’t have the same forms of neighbourhoods that you might have had in the past," Beck said.
“It’s a way of meeting people that might be from different cultures, different backgrounds. It’s intergenerational."
Burnaby Neighbourhood House provides preschool, children, youth, adult, senior and family programs.
Services include grocery/meal delivery program for seniors, computer support, supporting older adult readers, student training, youth employment programs, income tax clinics, multi-lingual translation/interpretation support, neighbourhood outreach and more.
One of the largest needs the Burnaby Neighbourhood House addressed in its early years was childcare, something that is still a struggle for many today.
“Over the years, as we evolved and started to respond to needs in the community, then the services began to emerge," Beck explained.
“Childcare continues to be an issue, but 20 years ago, there wasn’t that many organized daycare centres. That was one of the, I guess, areas of the neighbourhood house started to respond to, was the issue of setting up daycare. “We did that with the community. I think that’s a key part of working within the neighbourhood house model or vision, it’s really about working with residents to respond to needs that they identify."
“So each daycare centre that we started, we started because parents approached us and so then we worked with them to set it up and then the neighbourhood house ending up being the provider."
Twenty-five years later, Burnaby has two neighbourhood houses (north and south), nine day care centres and three preschools through the organization, something Beck says she's very grateful for.
“To know that we are here and available for Burnaby residents is very rewarding."
