In 2023, a group of individuals in New Westminster came together as a working group to discuss an opportunity to create a local Neighbourhood House that would operate out of the St. Barnabas Anglican Hall and Parish.

St. Barnabas Parish is actively welcoming the community with ad-hoc drop-in programs, and the number of residents seeking support is rising nearly every week. Feedback from the Community Advisory Committee shows that while St. Barnabas Parish has been supporting some community-based programs, the space isn’t being fully utilized, and the demand is growing.

With initial funding support from the Alexandra Foundation, the working group completed Phase 1 of this project. Key activities in this phase included forming an Advisory Committee, drafting a governance structure, and planning a community engagement event.

The tasks were designed to assess the feasibility of developing a Neighbourhood House at the St. Barnabas site. Through Phase 1, various meetings with partner organizations were held to explore future opportunities and discuss strategic planning, including conversations with the leadership at St. Barnabas around long-term planning and the legal requirements to use the site to operate the Neighbourhood House. 

The St. Barnabas Anglican Parish would like to provide an opportunity for a Neighbourhood House to operate out of its physical space in New Westminster. This project will establish a local Neighbourhood House as a not-for-profit society and allow the new society to create structure and policy around programming and governance, as it pertains to sharing the space. With its physical space and location in the City, St. Barnabas is well-positioned to offer its space. 

As part of the feasibility phase, an advisory committee was also established to support the process and guide the project through the initial stages of planning and community engagement.