A great safe place for Mayzie to be.

More than 200,000 children across the Lower Mainland have now either started or settled back to school. For many working parents, it’s a real struggle to find and afford after-school arrangements. Many BC families are challenged to find childcare especially with family debt at historic levels and growing. Many kids don’t have access to quality after-school programs to help them develop self-confidence and social skills – kids like Mayzie. Two months after Mayzie was born, her Dad left her Mom, Niki and the country. Mayzie’s Mom struggled to make ends meet but she was able to do it. Mayzie was cared for by a friend, her aunt and her Grandma. Then tragedy struck when Mayzie’s grandma and her favorite uncle, both passed away within 12 months of each other. “Everything I built was lost: my money, my security, my foundation. I had no idea what I was going to do, where I was going to go,” Niki says. It was too much – she couldn’t get out of bed. She couldn’t care take care of Mayzie, so she took a leave of absence from her work. Today, Mayzie and Niki are living in the Tri-Cities a block from where Niki grew up. And, thanks to the after school programs offered at a United Way-supported community school in the neighbourhood, Mayzie is thriving. Community schools keep kids safe and supervised during the critical before and after school hours. Donors’ generosity finds it’s way into children’s lives through United Way funded Community School Coordinators. Community School Coordinators learn the assets that exist in neighbourhoods where schools are located and develop programs within the community to provide kids with valuable activities. Examples include developing breakfast programs by partnering with a food supplier, a service organization and the school, or creating a floor hockey program with the local ice hockey team acting as youth mentors to younger kids in the neighbourhood. In 2013/14, Mayzie was one of almost 52,000 kids across the Lower Mainland who participated in a United Way-supported community school where quality after-school programs helps children succeed inside and outside the classroom helping them build self-confidence and social skills. By helping kids like Mayzie grow up healthy and strong, United Way and our donors help prevent future problems such as poor mental and physical health, unemployment and poverty that can result from challenges faced early in life. We help parents learn how to provide the best start for their kids. “All this loss was happening around Mayzie. Since moving here the school has embraced us. Having the [after school] programs, the support and the amazing community school resources has helped us to paint the colour back in our life,” Niki says. “I’m doing sewing and musical theatre because I want to be a fashion designer. A fashion designer and a baking person. I’d like to make a 10,000 layer cake,” Mayzie says. “You get to put all the icing and sprinkles and stuff on, that’s my favorite part.” Behind every changed life is someone who made it happen. That someone is you. Help kids like Mayzie be all they can be. Please give.