The People Place

The People Place is an innovative community facility that services the needs of people of all ages and from all walks of life, with a mandate to provide affordable, accessible office and program space for non-profit, social service agencies in the North Okanagan.

While People Place houses a number of charitable organizations, it is itself a non-profit society that provides meeting space to many additional community groups. Keeping rents low allows tenants to divert their resources to service delivery. The only mandate of the People Place Society is to operate the facility: we fundraise, manage a busy meeting room schedule, look after maintenance and seek new agencies when a vacancy occurs.

The People Place is centrally located in downtown Vernon and provides a way for both tenants and clients to share resources. Our tenants are wide-ranging, from Independent Living Vernon to the Family Resource Centre. Some of the agencies that fill our 19,600 square feet have been with us since the beginning. Between our tenants' offices and our meeting rooms, people get the support they need to lead healthy, fulfilling lives. 

The society continues to make fundraising a part of our mandate, holding several fundraisers every year, including our garage sale in the spring and our garden tour in the summer. These events help to maintain our profile, keeping the community aware of the variety of services that People Place provides. 

Supporting the People Place in turn supports 15 charitable agencies at once, allowing them to use their individual fundraising efforts to provide much-needed programming. One of the biggest assets of being a member agency at People Place is the opportunity to network and collaborate on a regular basis. 

When the People Place was first conceived in 1990, it was with a simple but powerful vision: to act as a roof for dozens of non-profit and social service agencies. Since People Place opened its doors, it has been able to deliver on its promise to the community: connecting families with the vital social work of our hard-working agencies.