When Donna Chang realized Saturday’s weather called for a relentless downpour, she knew Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House’s 23rd annual carnival would not be as big as years previous.
“Well, here we go! Where are the tents?” the House’s executive director said from her crowded office in the Victoria Drive building amid the carnival hubbub that had been jammed inside.
“You know, there’s amazing people who work here. Our volunteers, everyone – well, people are wet and they probably feel miserable but they’re still giving all they can give.”
Every corner of the building was used: a room for the lunch where barbecue pork buns were served up for two bucks each and butter chicken and rice rang in at $4.50 a plate; another space for bingo and the bakery and other rooms still for a clothing sale and children’s carnival games. The cakewalk was pushed outside, undercover, and the garage sale lined Alice Street out back until organizers shut it down by noon as everything turned into a sopping mess of used goods and disintegrating cardboard.
“People look forward to this day, they really do,” Chang said, adding that the carnival on sunny days attracts double the people and raises an average of $20,000, which goes towards Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House’s food programs.
“We have people here that might have come here as a preschooler, or they might have brought their preschooler, or they might have brought their mother and they no longer do but they come back for the carnival,” she said. “We see a lot of people we haven’t seen in a long time, it’s a like a big family reunion. That is the one thing that is heartening, we really feel supported.”
Support is the reason for the existence of neighbourhood houses. There are 12 in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»that, like Cedar Cottage, are non-profits and belong to the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia. While each offers individual programs to reflect its particular neighbourhood’s needs, they all share the same idea of building a healthy and engaged community.
“This is a place for everyone,” said Chang, who has worked for neighbourhood houses in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»since 1979. “The thing about neighbourhood houses is we’re really guided by missions and values and, for us, it’s important for us to have a place that belongs to all people. So there’s a diversity of culture, of class, of income – all that is really important.”
It is also a reflection of Kensington-Cedar Cottage which is considered to be East Vancouver’s most ethnically-diverse neighbourhood. The neighbourhood house began in 1950 as a way of providing youth with after-school recreational programs. It has since grown to include programs that range from songs and stories for Vietnamese families and pocket markets where fruits and vegetables can be purchased for wholesale prices to after-school social clubs for teenagers, and a seniors’ supper club.
The first neighbourhood house was established in London, England in 1880 as a way of helping those who had moved to the city and left their families behind to find work. Even though the houses have a long history, they are not widely known even despite the self-explanatory name.
“I think that if you were to go out and ask somebody on the street, they might not know what a neighbourhood house is,” said Chang. “People tend to come in for something they need like childcare or a family program, or they’re looking for volunteer hours, or they are seniors needing some support, or cooking workshops… So people come in for these reasons and then they get hooked. They then begin to realize that the relationships in the organization are just as important as the programs.”
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