The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House     

About Us 

Founded in 2005, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House [DTES NH] is a secular, independent community driven non-profit society that is part of a global neighbourhood house movement.  Operating in a community with one of the highest rates of child poverty, homelessness, the average resident lives with one or more serious health issues, and is under-housed. We are advocates, critical of the poverty mentality and the charity model.  We challenge the clichés visited upon the materially poor and work towards dignity and deservedness of all.

What We Do 

Our mandate is to provide programming, and educational, leadership, social and recreational opportunities to residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.  We serve all ancestries, ages, including children, families, seniors, individuals and low-income. All of our Programming involves food, serving over 40,000 meals in-house and through our Nutritional Outreach, serving 12,000 isolated and street-based individuals, over the past year.   We are the only non-profit in this community that delivers an Operating Philosophy and Food Charter standard that prepares whole foods and predominantly fresh plant based meals from scratch. Directly impacting our neighbours right, choice and access to fresh nutritiously-dense food. Fundamentally, we provide empowerment opportunities for our neighbours to engage in a broad range of activities and most importantly, connection to healthy community.

Our Vision

To provide a dignified welcoming space that creates and supports an improved quality of life for the DTES community.

Our Mission

To provide opportunities for residents to meaningfully engage with and contribute to their community in an equitable atmosphere of sharing and learning.

Your donation will primarily support the following:

• The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House is working hard to support the community during this difficult COVID-19 pandemic time. Read all about it here.

• We are beginning to raise funds for our move. Read all about it here.

• Continuing to run our programs to allow more men, women, children and families access to nutrition, education and food in a community kitchen that offers good quality proteins and manageable food costs thereby empowering our members.

• Operational expenses such as staffing costs, janitorial expenses and educational activities.

• To learn more about our needs, check our our Case for support