CHANGE A LIFE
On a recent July Saturday Evena visited a Guildford school parking lot, one of four designated Local Love Food Hubs especially for children and families attending inner city schools in Surrey. She was there to pick up much-needed supports from volunteers at the City Dream Centre – a grocery hamper filled with bread, fresh produce,
Working together makes all the difference when it comes to building community, according to United Way British Columbia research. Volunteering is 21% more meaningful when you do it with people you know. It’s something students from Clayton Heights Secondary School completely agree with. Earlier this month, 30 Grade 10 Math students travelled from Surrey’s Clayton
The Vancouver tech community gathered this past Sunday to hack the Grouse Grind, taking part in the 4th annual United Way Tech Grind presented by McMillan LLP. Teams raced to the top of Grouse Mountain – all 2,830 steps, 2.9 km and 853 meters in elevation – all while raising funds for United Way’s School’s
September 30th is Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis’ story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away from her on her first day
Today the Government of British Columbia announced a contribution of $250,000 in 2019-20 to the Youth Futures Education Fund. The funding will provide students formerly in foster care with access to funding for costs beyond tuition such as buying books, groceries, paying bills and rent. “Former youth in care pursuing their educational dreams don’t always
There is something important and impactful about looking back. It gives us time to pause and reflect on the year that was: we can celebrate the partnerships forged, relationships deepened and impact made. At United Way, it also helps reaffirm our commitment to tackling the unignorable issues we see in our communities – issues like
If all the children in B.C. who live in poverty were gathered together, they would form B.C.’s fifth-largest city with a population of 153,300. That city would be disproportionately populated with First Nations kids, visible minorities, recent immigrants and children of single parents, according to a newly released BC Child Poverty Report Card by the
Residents of East Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood face many challenges, including poverty, access to affordable housing and high childhood vulnerability rates. Linda Day, Executive Director of the Aboriginal Mothers Centre Society (AMCS) sees in particular how these issues affect Aboriginal mothers and their children living in the area. “There are many challenges facing Aboriginal women
Lucca is one of 170,000 children in the Lower Mainland between the ages of 6-12. Just like his mom, Miriam, a single mother, Lucca loves soccer. The 9-year-old is also passionate about poetry. Thanks to a unique United Way School’s Out program in Burnaby, he gets to participate in both. “Soccer’s my favourite, but I
A ball of energy with nowhere to go—that’s how 25-year-old Verdann describes her younger self. Throughout her childhood, her unstable home life sent her bouncing from household to household, and city to city. By the time she was 17, Verdann had been couch surfing and sleeping on the street for years. “I was in a
Parents of children aged 6 to 12 report benefits from enrolling their kids in out-of-school-time programs, a new poll by Insights West conducted in partnership with the United Way British Columbia has found. The poll was conducted through an online survey. A representative sample of parents in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley were surveyed.
From mom-and-baby classes to post-kindergarten playdates, there’s lots of stuff for little kids to do to keep them busy and socially engaged before nap time. But once they start school, opportunities for extracurricular engagement start to drop. “There’s a complete mismatch between the end of the school day and the end of parents’ workdays,” says
Twice a month, Wes, Adam, Michael and Dave meet up as part of the Dads on the North Shore peer support group. The first time they meet, it’s just the guys, but the second time, it’s the dads and their young children. With almost 50,000 families on the North Shore, this unique United Way-funded
United Way is one of four charities that HSBC Bank Canada (HSBC) is supporting through an $11 million funding commitment from 2014 to 2020. The three other charities are Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, Indspire and Pathways to Education Canada. Through this combination of charitable organizations, HSBC is funding wraparound support to Indigenous youth,
Today is Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis' story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at the
Peanut butter makes a great sandwich – all that gooey goodness binding the bread together. Summer camp is a bit like peanut butter, connecting the end of the school year with the beginning of a new school year. Kids learn new skills and make new friends and like it as much as they do peanut