At Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, we have been making Mount Pleasant a better place to live for over three decades. We believe in our neighbourhood and in the ability and the right of its members to enhance their lives. Working together we are a stronger, healthier neighbourhood.


Welcome to Our House




A History of Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House

Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House (MPNH) is an integral part of the diverse, vibrant, and most multicultural neighbourhood in Vancouver. Our mandate is to make our neighbourhood a better place to live and we have been connecting neighbours ever since. We began serving the community in 1976 with a youth leadership program that we ran from the basement of a local church, and added our second program, free income tax clinics, from a mobile trailer in 1977. Later that year, we moved to our first storefront building in the 500 block of East Broadway , and finally, in 1995, we set up house in  the spacious building we currently occupy at the busy corner of Broadway and Prince Albert. Our dedicated and engaged staff provide programs and services for more than 3,000 people annually, from nearly 40 countries of origin. We work with a wide range of funders, community partners, as well as a strong volunteer base to offer community-oriented events and activities that meet the needs of the neighbourhood’s always changing population.

Origin of Neighbourhood Houses

Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House is a member of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia (ANHBC), founded in 1894, one of the oldest continuously serving non-profit societies in the province. MPNH is one of eight other Houses and Camps serving communities in Metro Vancouver developed out of the British-led settlement house movement  during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century to address the needs of people who had moved into the cities to find employment, often leaving behind their families and everything that was familiar to them. The settlement house movement is credited with establishing public recreation programs, the first day nurseries for working parents, English as a second language and adult literacy classes as well as the profession of social work. Today Neighbourhood Houses are hubs for local community development activities and for programs and services that address local needs. There are thousands of Neighbourhood Houses in more than thirty countries around the world. Locally, ANHBC is a community partner of the United Way of the Lower Mainland. For more information, see the ANHBC website.

What Is a Neighbourhood House?

Neighbourhood Houses play a distinct role in the community they serve. They take a grassroots approach to service delivery which allows them to access the strengths and skills of participants and work together to address the needs and goals of the community.  Neighbourhood Houses value the empowerment, safety, collaboration, respect and inclusiveness of all people. Another important feature of Neighbourhood Houses is that they partner with local community organizations to create mutually beneficial events and share resources.  MPNH leads and participates in numerous projects, including a Community Literacy Planning project, as well as a number of other community-based initiatives that address larger community issues. Identifying and adapting to the needs and abilities of diverse groups is what we do best.A couple of examples of the type of work we do which is tailored to the needs and abilities of our communities are:

  • A community development outreach program which helps new immigrant women adjust to and thrive within a new environment combines literacy (language, computer, and financial) with civic engagement and leadership training to assist them in identifying and making use of resources that enhance their lives and the lives of their families.


  • Offering Mandarin parenting programs for grandparents who provide childcare for their grandchildren on a regular basis, helping them learn about Canadian parenting styles and creating a peer environment that allows them to discuss issues which are important to them such as cultural versus Canadian nutrition.

For more information please see our Community Development section and Programs pages.