Nonprofit Organizations in Vancouver

POSITIVE LIVING BC is dedicated to empowering persons living with HIV/AIDS through mutual support and collective action. We are a Registered Non-profit Society (#11928-2085) and an established leader in the HIV/AIDS movement. Uniquely among major agencies in Canada, the POSITIVE LIVING BC Board of Directors is composed entirely of HIV-positive members. With a membership of more than 5,400 HIV-positive members and a proud history spanning three decades, we are Western Canada's largest AIDS service organization and an established leader in the HIV/AIDS movement. We rely on funding, donations from the wider community in order to provide our range of services and events, and to produce a variety of resources and publications.

Postmodern Camerata (PMC) is a non-profit chamber music organization starting its 4th successful season. We’ve performed at a variety of venues including Dunbar Heights United Church, the Canadian Music Centre’s Murray Adaskin Salon and the Orpheum Annex. We’re recognized for our unique ensemble structure (having both instruments and singers) and in recent years, have received support from the SOCAN Foundation and the Vancouver Civic Theatres. We provide opportunities for Canadian composers, and as our name suggests, we play chamber music repertoire that is both traditional and modern. Compared to other ensembles in Vancouver, our musician’s time commitments are more flexible and our repertoire selections feature a wider variety of genres. Most importantly we have an educational outreach mandate to mentor young performers and to encourage youngsters to attend our performances.

Power To Be is a nonprofit organization based in Victoria and Vancouver that empowers people living with a barrier or disability to explore their limitless abilities through inclusive adventures rooted in nature.

Nestled in the heart of North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale, Presentation House Theatre has become a neighbourhood cultural hub, providing the community with a dynamic mix of professional theatre, music, and dance productions — all just a Seabus away from downtown Vancouver. We are the North Shore’s professional theatre company. For more than 40 years, we’ve entertained audiences with innovative programming and quality professional productions in our wonderfully intimate space. We are committed to presenting and producing shows of the highest standard, and appealing to the diversity of North Shore audiences. We proudly offer programming for children and youth, adults young and old.

Formed in 2013, The Presidents Group (PG) is a network of business leaders in B.C. who are focused on increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities and creating a more accessible consumer marketplace. As part of their work, they look to: o Improve human resource practices within businesses by identifying innovative workforce strategies that support all employees and enhance productivity. o Identify barriers and solutions for businesses when hiring persons with disabilities. o Create opportunities for the Province, in partnership with B.C. businesses, to improve supports for employers in order to support the hiring of people with disabilities.

The Prince George Regional Kerala Cultural Association (PGRKCA) is a community organization based in Prince George, BC, dedicated to promoting and preserving the cultural heritage of Kerala, India. The association organizes various cultural events, social gatherings, and festivals to celebrate Malayali traditions and connect the local Malayali community. Through these activities, PGRKCA aims to foster a sense of unity and cultural pride among its members.

ProChoices is a by-donation Narrative Therapy clinic that runs on a feminist, social-profit model, located in unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Tsleil-Waututh, and Skwxwú7mesh Territory, Vancouver B.C. ProChoices has grown out of the needs expressed by our communities. With their ongoing support, our clinic has survived its first year sponsored entirely by client donations, member contributions, our certificate program proceeds, the support of Hilda Nanning Counselling, and the passionate work of our team of therapists. Fuelled by our feminisms, ProChoices offers accessible, quality therapy to individuals and communities of diverse genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, and life experiences. We understand affordable therapy to be social justice activism as well as a response to the individualist, euro-centric/hegemonic, capitalist patriarchy we live in. ProChoices credits the clients as the experts of their own experience and as the authority on what constitutes meaningful change in their lives. We do not prescribe or pathologize, and instead invite a co-research experience for our clients. This co-research process opens up alternative ways of experiencing, responding, and resolving the challenges and problems that might stand in the way of our clients’ well-being.

ProChoices, an affordable counselling clinic in downtown Vancouver, is a feminist, grassroots non-profit that is committed to providing accessible radical narrative therapy as well as training and certification for university students and working professionals.

Project Empathic seeks to bridge the gap between elementary school students and unhoused people through card-making, detailing homelessness and creating a sense of community. We aim to elevate the voices of unhoused people by teaching the students why card-making and further actions are important through educational workshops so society may develop empathy and unlearn the stigma of homelessness.

Project Hastings is a high-school student-led nonprofit organization that combats poverty and hunger in the Vancouver, Downtown Eastside through monthly meal and care package distributions. Since 2020, Project Hastings has distributed over 10,000 sandwiches and has had assistance from over 150 volunteers from the Metro Vancouver area.

Project Oaks is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the stigma of mental illness through sharing personal stories. We currently operate in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Vancouver. As a whole, Project Oaks seeks to reduce social isolation, increase accessibility to mental health care, and prevent suicide through stigma reduction.

Orbis is a global leader and innovator in the fight to end avoidable blindness. We collaborate with our local partners to create long-term, sustainable eye care solutions in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Working side by side with local hospitals, ministries of health, like-minded NGOs and community groups, our mission is to make quality eye care accessible to everyone, everywhere – from bustling cities to the most remote rural villages. - We combine traditional hands-on skills transfer with the latest in medical simulation and telemedicine technology to empower entire eye care teams with the knowledge and skills to tackle the most pressing eye health needs in their own communities. Whether it is an eye doctor performing complex surgeries in an urban hospital, a nurse treating patients in a rural clinic, or a primary health care worker screening children in her own community. - We strengthen eye care systems, infrastructure and patient referral networks to build eye health capacity and increase access to quality eye care – now and for the future. - We educate communities and increase awareness about the importance of eye health as a critical component of better overall health and well-being. - We deliver community-based eye health outreach initiatives, ranging from eye screening programs for children in rural schools to the mass distribution of antibiotics to treat and prevent infectious causes of blindness. - We advocate for equal and equitable access to eye health to help ensure no woman, man, girl or boy has to live a life of darkness, dependence and inescapable poverty caused by vision loss that could be easily prevented. While ending avoidable blindness is our mission, Orbis’s work is about much more than helping people see. The link between poverty and vision loss is clear – poverty causes poor vision and poor vision leads to poverty. Orbis helps break this vicious cycle. By restoring sight, we empower people with the ability to go to school, get an education, work to earn a living and take care of themselves and their families. Removing the burden of blindness eliminates barriers and creates opportunities for people to live better, healthier, more productive and more prosperous lives. As a result, individuals, families and entire communities, health systems and economies become stronger. Orbis is also working to close the blindness gender gap and help women and girls reach their full potential. Our gender-focused eye care projects not only help ensure equitable access to high-quality eye care for women and girls, but also create training and employment opportunities, and engage women to play a leading role in eye health in their communities. When we break down gender barriers and create gender equality in eye care, we empower women and girls to be change makers. And when we create opportunities for women and girls to reach their full potential, the result is measurable social, economic and cultural change and a better world. Orbis Canada is an affiliate of Orbis International, headquartered in New York City.