We spoke with Claudine Matlo, Director of Community Programs at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House in Vancouver, about the ways in which their organization has been able to continue to respond to needs in their neighbourhood during COVIC-19.

Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Neighbourhood House (MPNH) is located in a widely diverse, mixed-income area of East Vancouver, on the busy Broadway corridor commuter route to downtown. 

When COVID-19 hit, one of the first priorities was to sustain emergency daycare services.  Initially, this was the only service running onsite after their building closed to regular operations.  They were able to create two fully dedicated childcare spaces, so that when some staff members were able to start coming back into the building, their office/operational areas were completely separated from the daycare.

As of April 6th, MPNH were able to launch the Emergency Daycare program for children aged 3 to 5 years old to serve families who were currently enrolled in MPNH programs and who were doing essential work curing COVID-19.  Working with the Licensing Officer, they adapted age appropriate programming and implemented stringent health and safety protocols, complying fully with public health recommendations, and operating with a very low staff to child ratio, and limited spaces.

As well, as the pre-school program, MPNH were also able to set up quite quickly to maintain a small group of children from their before- and after-school age care program to support families doing essential work.  The layout of their building allowed for this group to be sectioned off in a specific area of the neighbourhood house with a separate entrance.  They have also been able to run small Summer Camps for the 5-12 age group.

The other key initial priority was food support for families from their Family Programs, Indigenous families, Newcomers, Seniors, and residents of the Mount Pleasant and adjoining area requiring food support.  Under normal circumstances, cooking together plays a significant role in MPNH programming.  They have a full commercial kitchen, where participants gather together to prepare food, learn and share nutrition and cooking skills, meet new people, and build community.  The cooking programs provide space for participants with common interests, ethno-cultural backgrounds, or health needs to come together in a welcoming and inclusive space.

When the COVID-19 crisis developed so quickly, it took a little while to be able to set up protocols to operate the onsite kitchen to provide food support, and offsite partners stepped up to assist and prepare food offsite so that MPNH could quickly set up a food support program to support their community and gear up to provide hampers and prepared meals.  They had to add new skills and infrastructure for packaging and delivery for this local food support program.  They are currently providing over 100 pre-made, packaged meals per week.  For more information about the partnership MPNH established with local restaurant group, The Rumpus Room, go to https://mpnh.org/mount-pleasant-neighbourhood-house-partners-with-the-rumpus-room/  One of the additional benefits of this partnership has been in creating an opportunity for community members to donate towards meeting the food security needs of their neighbours and ensure the provision of safely-prepared, nutritionally-balanced meals.

General programming has been continued through online and outdoor meetings.  Several business partners have donated tablets and computers to enable participants to stay connected.  Since summer, MPNH Family Resource programs have been able to run a modified summer program in the park for families with infants and toddlers.  Six families are attending that program currently.

They have been able to maintain their Newcomers and Immigrants Welcoming programming using virtual small groups and online one-to-one support.

There is a lot going on with the Seniors’ programming, both online and with food support.  Art packages are being put together and delivered both to participant families from the Indigenous programs and to participants in the Seniors’ programs.  The Art Package component for Seniors includes an online Zoom group where participants join in to work on their art projects at the same time.

A Men’s group is also running online.

Youth programming has adapted particularly well to online formatting, including a weekly online cooking group on Friday evenings, where youth cook and share a meal together online.  A weekly girls’ group is also meeting online.  The Newcomer Leadership Youth group meets weekly online to develop leadership skills and connect youth to volunteering opportunities.  For World Elder Abuse Day, youth distributed packages of flowers and gifts to 105 neighbourhood address.  The youth who participated in this enjoyed it so much they have put together a Neighbourhood Small Grant application to do it again.

It is hoped to start up some in-person youth programming again in the autumn, once schools have re-opened.

The staff members at the Neighbourhood House have demonstrated resilience and capacity, and most are coping well under in these difficult times.  MPNH put in policies early on after the initial closedown for those staff members who felt it necessary to come in to work onsite in the offices.  About 5-7 people come in regularly to work in the office and people have found it helpful to have the option.

A couple of staff took leave to balance life requirements, but most staff members have been able to keep on with their work, taking it a stage at a time.  As a mental health support during this difficult time, MPNH have provided optional twice weekly meditation sessions for staff.   Regular online team meetings, grouped by focus area, and bi-weekly online all-staff meetings, have proven really helpful.  In fact, Claudine commented that there has been better attendance than normal for these meetings, as staggered work schedules mean that not everyone can normally make it into the office for in-person sessions.

Organizational resourcefulness and flexibility, good teamwork, and strong community partnerships have been integral to maintaining a wide range of services in response to the unusual circumstances presented by the COVID-19 crisis.

Editor’s note: Since the time of interview, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House is still running meal deliveries, but have pivoted to everything being prepared in-house, packaged in-house, and delivered by program staff and volunteers. In this way, approximately 150 meals per week are delivered to the community.