A Clearing House of Neighbourhood Houses in Metro Vancouver INSPIRE 2014 International Neighbourhood House & Settlement Conference Vancouver, BC, Canada Miu Chung Yan, Ph.D. Rory Sutherland, MSW Candidate The University of British Columbia School of Social Work
27
Embed
A Clearing House of Neighbourhood Houses in Metro Vancouver INSPIRE 2014 International Neighbourhood House & Settlement Conference Vancouver, BC, Canada
A Clearing House of Neighbourhood Houses in Metro Vancouver INSPIRE 2014 International Neighbourhood House & Settlement Conference Vancouver, BC, Canada Miu Chung Yan, Ph.D. Rory Sutherland, MSW Candidate The University of British Columbia School of Social Work. NHiMV Project. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
A Clearing House of Neighbourhood Houses in Metro
VancouverINSPIRE 2014
International Neighbourhood House & Settlement ConferenceVancouver, BC, Canada
The University of British ColumbiaSchool of Social Work
NHiMV Project• First systematic study of NHs in Canada• Four years, collaborative, funded by
SSHRC• Research questions:
– “How do neighbourhood houses, as place-based, multi-service, community-governed, non-profit organizations, affect social equity, collective efficacy, and inclusion, based on the cases of Metro Vancouver?”
– Locally governed, multiservice, accessible, mobilization of local resource, volunteer-heavy, nurturing users to serve.
• Recent challenges– Over-relied on government funding
• program-based, insensitive to local needs• Purposes of the study
– Providing a background for a larger study– How true are NHs to the SH concepts?– How much are NHs relying on government funding?
Questions to be answered?• Are they multiservice? If so, what kind of
services are they providing?• How accessible are they?
– Opening hours, fee, service users, languages spoken
• Who are governing the NHs?• Who are the staff?• How extensive is volunteer participation?• How much do they rely on government
funding?
Neighbourhood Houses: Metro Vancouver
• Kitsilano NH• Frog Hollow NH• Mt Pleasant NH• Little Mountain
NH• Cedar Cottage
NH• Marpole Place
NH• South
Vancouver NH• Collingwood
NH
North Shore NH• Kiwassa NH• Downtown
Eastside NH• Gordon NH
Burnaby NH
Oak Ave NH
Alexandra NH
Marpole NH
Methodology• N=15• Questionnaire• Challenges (information on human
capital):– UBC Ethics requirement – infeasible to ask for
information from each employee and volunteer of NHs – bulk information from each NH, technical support from survey monkey on request• Board: n=128, 81%, 50% - 100%• Staff: n=745, 75.7%, 57.3% - 100%
– Not all NHs have detailed information of all volunteers – estimate
Are NHs multiservice?
Total No of Programs:
N=444
Service TargetsTotal number
of participants
(in frequency) =
208,664
Are they accessible?1. Membership System:
a. Individual Membership Fee: $1-$15b. Senior Membership Fee (N=3): $1-$3c. Family Membership Fee (N=7), $5-$20
2. Main Premise (permanency and stability):a. Own, N=5b. Lease, N=10 (mainly governments) ($1-$83,569)
3. Hours Open:a. Average Hours per Week: 51.2 (S.D=16, Median 53,
Mode 54)b. Evening Hours per Week: N=11, 12.5 Hours, N=4, in
need.
Are they accessible? (2)
Total languages spoken by staff: 53
Who are governing the NHs?• Gender: Female: N=84 (65%); Male: N=45, (35%)• Age:
Number of Board Members that Identify as Immigrants
BoardCensus Data
Who is governing the NHs? (4)• Former/Existing NH Service Users:
– Never, N=110; Active User, N=43; Former User, N=16
• Live/Work in the Neighbourhood (more than one choice, N =110)– Current residents N=88– Former residents N=15– Working in neighbourhood N=31– Used to work in NH N=13– Live and work in NH N=21– Used to live and work in NH N=11– Others N=17
Who are the staff?• Gender: Female: N=619 (65%); Male: N=114, (35%)• Age: <25, N=90 (12.8%) 41-50, N=160(22.8%) >60, N=31(4.4%)
25-40, N=295(42%) 51-60, N=126(17.9%)
• Ethnicity: N=25 Top 5: Canadian (N=194), Chinese (N=103), Latin American (N=33), South Asian (N=32), Filipino (N=25)
• Highest Level of Education:1. Up to High school diploma N=104 (14.9%)
2. Up to College Diploma N=319 (45.7%)3. Up to Undergraduate degree N=192 (27.5%)4. Up to Post—graduate degree N=83 (11.9%)– Early childhood edu (22.8%); Children and youth service (16.5%),
Social service related (21.5%), Business related (5.4%), Social Work (5.2%)
Who are the staff? (2)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 150%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Percentage of Staff Members that Identify as a Visible Minority
Census DataStaff Data
Metro Vancouver Neighourhood Houses
Who are the staff? (3)• Immigrant status of Staff Members:
Number of Staff Members that Identify as Immigrants
Staff DataCensus Data
Who are the staff? (4)• Former/Existing NH Service Users:
– Never: N=273 (37.2%)– Active User: N=311 (42.4%)– Former User: N=150 (20.4%)
• Currently Living in the Neighbourhood?– Current residents N=321 (43.1%)– Former residents N=93 (12.5%)– Others N=331 (44.4%)
Who are the staff? (5)• Years of Service:
1. <3 Years N=254 (34.5%)2. 3-5 Years N=176 (23.9%)3. 5-10 Years N=190 (25.8%)4. >10 Years N=116 (15.8%)
• Employment Status: Regular: N=650; Contract: 140Regular staff:1. 35 or more hrs per week N=352 (44.6%)2. 21 or more hrs per week N=178 (22.5%)3. 11-20 hrs per week N=60 (7.6%)4. Less than 10 hrs per week N=60 (7.6%)Positions: Managerial (15.8%), Program Staff (45.7%), Support staff (9.3%), Others (7.1%)
What kind of volunteer participation?
1. Volunteer registration system: N=15
2. Total registered volunteers: >3,672 people, average 250 people per NH
3. Average 15,000 volunteer hours per year at each NH
4. No of Programs served: N=360 (83%)
5. Gender: 70% Female, 30% Male
6. Major languages: Chinese (N=12nh), Spanish (N=11), Korean (N=7), Vietnamese/Tagalog (N=6)
0.6%
23%
55%
22%
Age Groups
Children %Youth %Adult %Senior %
How much do they rely on government funding?
Fede
ral
Prov
incial
Muncip
al
United
Way
F/C O
rg
Gaming Fe
e
Donat
ion
Others
0
4,000,000
8,000,000
12,000,000
16,000,000
2.2
15.4
2.91.6 1.3 1.4
10.7
0.51.4
Total Funding by Source
Fund
ing
in D
olla
rs
How much do they rely on government funding? (2)
Federal Provincial Municipal UWFG0
20406080
100120140160180200
Total Metro Vancouver NH Program Funding by Type
Ongoing
Renewable >3yr
Renewable <3yr
Non Renewable >3yr
Non Renewable <3yr
How much do they rely on government funding? (3)
Fed go
v’t
Prov g
ov’t
City go
v’t
United
Way
Gaming
Found
ation
sFee
Others
66
182
133
7486
57
135
96
Program Funding Sources
Num
ber o
f pro
gram
s
Discussion and Implications• Neighbourhood house inherited from the tradition
of the Settlement House Movement but they are no longer a settlement house– No resident stationed and relying on government
funding
• Place-based nature– Multiservice: meeting local needs
• Reflection of local population (language serve, ethnicity, immigrant status among staff and volunteers, but not the board)
– Locally governed (Boards) and locally operated (staff)– Volunteer participations: mobilization of local resources
• Participation pathway: volunteers/service users to board/staff
– Permanency of infrastructure: psychological attachment
Discussion and implications (2)• Funding challenges
– Reliance on government funding– Short-term funding (program-based)
• Lack of core funding• Human resources
– Staff turn-over (instability)• Part-time, contract position
– Over or under-professionalized?• Staff with training• Minimum social work presence
Discussion and implications (3)• Diversifying funding sources:
– social enterprise?– local donations?– service coalitions to secure service contract– Creative marketing to local residents and politicians
• Keeping a strong community tradition– Reposition NHs as place-based mechanism with dual
function: service delivery and community development– Actively induce community development/organizing
components in programming • Diversifying leadership
– Ethnoracial equity in managerial level: unknown– Nurturing leadership among ethnic minorities and
immigrants in the membership and neighbourhood
For More Information of the Findings and the Project,