CityReach - Newsletter #1

SPRING / SUMMER 2019

Helping

People Prosper

HELPING PEOPLE PROSPER I am so excited for the growth and the impact that CityReach is experiencing. I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to all our volunteers that make CityReach possible.

Week in and week out you serve the needs of our community so well. Thank you! Also, a huge thank you to all of the corporate sponsors and individual donors who made our Coldest Night Of The Year walk-a-thon fundraiser a great success! I’m happy to announce that because of your support we were able to exceed our goal of $100,000!!

I feel extremely humbled and blessed to get to serve alongside a community of likeminded individuals like you. I’m looking forward to continuing to see our programs grow and seeing more people prosper.

Simon Gau Executive Director

OUR PEOPLE OUR BOARD

Paul Moores Chairperson

George Samilski Treasurer Nola Weiss Secretary Jordon de Ruyter Dana Arsenault

OUR LEADERSHIP

Simon Gau Executive Director

Cheryl McManus Community Outreach Assistant Craig Savage Tri-Cities Community Director Jordan Getzin Out of School Care Director Sam Stanley Food for Families Director Jeremiah Touchbourne Club Freedom Director Lydia Park Administrative Assistant Rika Ando General Administration

Program Updates

ADOPT A SCHOOL Simon Gau

Executive Director

We are very excited to announce that we have officially launched our Adopt A School Program! We are partnering with local public schools and focusing our resources on particularly at-risk schools in our community! This year we’ve adopted Chief Maquinna Elementary which is just 800 meters from our Vancouver Campus.

It is an under-resourced school with a high population of immigrant families and lowincome households. We have met with the Principal and the Family Care Worker to best determine the needs of the school and are building a relationship of trust by meeting practical needs such as bus passes, diapers, and furniture for a family in desperate need. The families also benefit from our Back to School Blast, Boxes of Love and other community events. We are also launching our Food for Families Mobile Program at Chief Maquinna in Spring 2019!

More info: simong@cityreach.org

FOOD FOR FAMILIES

We are always happy to have new people come alongside what we are doing to help our families continue to prosper. With volunteers, new staff, companies and individuals who have a specialized gift or training that they can offer to our families, we are confident our program will continue to help the families in more ways than just access to healthy food, but by building a community to help them thrive.

More info: sams@cityreach.org

Sam Stanley

Food for Families Director

Food for Families is a nutritious food bank operating twice a week in our Vancouver location providing fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, and bread to more than 200 lowincome families. We have had many new families come to our program and an incredible amount of volunteer groups come and serve with our program as well.

With teams coming from TD Bank, Prospera, Teck Resources, Bosa Family Foundation, and others, we have been pleased to share what we are doing with more people who want to give back and positively impact the community through our program. We’ve had a team of dietitians also come and help our families with nutrition information while running a workshop to share how to prepare unique vegetables we often receive, and our families really enjoyed it.

“Food for Families brings people together. People don’t come just for the food, they come ahead of time to just sit, relax, talk. It’s great.”

Cathy – Food for Families volunteer “A lot of people are starving out there.

There is quality food here. I think that’s why this program is good.”

S – Food for Families guest

FOOD FOR FAMILIES MOBILE

Craig Savage

Tri-Cities Community Director

Food for Families Mobile is a mobile version of our food bank in strategic locations such as schools and other easy access facilities.

Our refrigerated truck allows us to take fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, and bread to families in need. There are now 100 families registered in our program across 5 locations. We are so excited to announce two new locations in the Tri-Cities: Kwayhquitlum Middle School in Port Coquitlam and Glen Elementary School in Coquitlam. We are also welcoming our first Food for Families Mobile location in Vancouver at Chief Maquinna Elementary School.

More info: craigs@cityreach.org

COMMUNITY CLUB CLOSET FREEDOM Craig Savage Community Closet Director

Jeremiah Touchbourne Club Freedom Director

Our monthly used clothing sale continues to have a bountiful supply of quality items thanks to the many people who donate and volunteer to provide low-cost clothing to our community! $3 for one bag and $5 for two bags! At our Tri-Cities location our sale has seen an increase in attendance and awareness since it began more than a year ago. We have also increased our social media presence by posting sample items on Facebook and promoting our sales on Vancouver-area sale groups.

Club Freedom continues to serve over 150 hot and delicious meals, along with a service, every Sunday for our guests at our Vancouver location. In January we celebrated the new year by opening a second Club Freedom at our Tri-Cities location. It’s so exciting to see our programs expand and for more people who are experiencing poverty to be served with dignity and care.

More info: craigs@cityreach.org

More info: jeremiaht@cityreach.org “Club Freedom has changed my life. God has healed my broken heart. I have received help through hard times. I am so thankful for all your prayers and support.”

Sandra – Vancouver Club Freedom guest

GIRL365 Cheryl McManus GIRL365 Director At the end of 2018, we offered a free online book study on overcoming insecurity, where we met weekly with a small group of girls from across several provinces to talk about knowing our true worth. We also launched the Brave Heart Club, where girls are matched with a pen pal across Canada and exchange encouraging letters throughout the school year.

So far this year, we have continued to add empowering content to our website, have created more Brave Heart Boxes AND launched The GIRL365 Podcast!! Our goal is to keep creating free, Christ-centered resources that hit relevant topics like friendship and dating, mental health, and understanding our identity. This spring, we will be attending several youth conferences across Canada, enabling to engage more girls with the work that we do. It is our priority to resource and support as many young women as we can through these monumental years.

More info: cherylm@cityreach.org

OUT OF SCHOOL CARE Jordan Getzin Out of School Care Director We offer before and after school care for students from kindergarten to grade 7.

Currently we have 35 full-time students enrolled with many on the wait-list. Offering out of school care for families continues to meet such practical needs in our community.

This past winter was packed full of surprise snow days, snow ball fights, snowmen, snow castles and snow angels! We love to be outdoors! After our many excursions into the snow, we enjoyed hot cocoa, marshmallows, boardgames and movies. We are one big happy family here at CityReach and loved our time together this winter.

More info: jordang@cityreach.org

COLDEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR

Event Updates Coldest Night of the Year is a nation-wide annual event where over 20,000 walkers step out into the cold and raise funds for the hungry, hurting and homeless in cities across Canada.

This is CityReach Care Society’s 5th year of participation. We doubled our goal to $100,000, in order to expand our programs to more families and schools in our communities and we did it! We raised $101,524 thanks to our amazing donors!

“This event was an incredible experience to be a part of. The organization, the meal, the kids’ stations, the participation from so many people.... just amazing.

Thank you for doing what you do.”

Heather - first-time walker/fundraiser

BOXES OF LOVE In 2018, thanks to your generosity, we reached our goal of raising $45,000 to provide 350 quality food hampers as well as toys for over 700 children. We had an amazing turnout on event day, where we filled both our Vancouver and Tri-Cities locations with all the supplies needed for volunteers to come pack and wrap. It was an amazing day and individuals, companies, Vancouver City Deputy Mayor and families were excited to take part in this annual Christmas initiative. Families were very thankful to receive their food, toys, gift cards and stuffed animals, and several were moved to tears. It is always a great reminder of both the need in our area, and our privilege to get to serve these families and show love in such a tangible way.

More info: cherylm@cityreach.org

FAMILY MOVIES

CHRISTMAS FUNTASTIC

Family Movies are now running at both our Vancouver and Tri-Cities locations! We ran two events this past season, one in October and one on Family Day weekend in February, seeing dozens of families from local schools and communities come through our doors and experience some family fun. This is another free event we are honoured to be able to offer the community as a fun and safe “open door� to welcome many first-time guests into our buildings and experience the great things we have to offer here at CityReach.

It was certainly a fun-tastic day! We had 650 children and parents come for a funfilled and festive event, including making gingerbread houses and Christmas crafts, face painting and photos with Santa.

Thanks again to the many volunteers and supporters from Broadway Church, this event was free to first time guests, and many great connections were made. We are so thankful to be able to partner together for these events, where we can celebrate the wonder and hope that the Christmas season brings. We look forward to hosting this event again thanks to your continued support.

More info: cherylm@cityreach.org

More info: cherylm@cityreach.org

Upcoming Events

BACK TO SCHOOL BLAST We are getting ready for summer… and that means gearing up for our 2nd annual Back to School Blast! This event provides back to school supplies plus a lot of fun for families in need of some support at this time of year.

We are looking for volunteers to provide manicures for moms, haircuts for kids, or to assist with food service, kids’ games or our used clothing sale on Saturday, August 24.

We’re working to make this year even better and to support even more deserving kids in our community. If you can join us or would like to make a donation toward the 700 backpacks filled with supplies that we will give away, please contact our team!

More info: cherylm@cityreach.org

Highlights Smile Back Program

with Image Smiles Dental

Many people are unable to afford routine dental care which can lead to several oral health issues, including chronic infection, pain, and even oral cancer. Image Smiles Dental is donating their time and free basic dental services to a number of children and adults that have limited or no access to dental care.

CityReach is excited to be a part of The Smile Back Program this year! We are hoping to make a huge difference in the lives of some of our community families and our goal is to have them leave the office with a smile!

STAY HEALTHY IN THE SUMMER

By Isabella Carneiro, Registered Dietitian (Food for Families volunteer)

Summer is coming (yay!) and we have gathered 5 tips to help you stay healthy while enjoying the nice weather outside.

1. Planning is key! Don’t forget to pack healthy snacks such as fresh fruits and vegetables to bring with you on your outings.

2. Plan activities that involve healthy food such as berry picking or going to your local farmers’ market to buy fresh produce.

3. Stay well hydrated!

• Always quench your thirst with water and avoid sugary drinks.

• Pay extra attention to hydration during outdoor activities such as hiking or playing sports in the heat.

4. Take advantage of the great variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

5. Treat yourself to a homemade frozen fruit pop (like the one below) for a healthy and refreshing snack!

Frozen Tropical Vacation Pops Ingredients: 2 ripe bananas, mashed 1 cup low-fat coconut-flavored yogurt 1 cup unsweetened orange juice

There is no need to use a blender; in fact, it’s better to make this by hand, as chunks of banana add to the texture.

Be sure to choose 100% unsweetened juice, not just in this recipe but always!

Instructions: In a bowl, combine bananas, yogurt and juice until well blended. Pour banana mixture into molds and insert sticks.

Freeze for at least 4 hours, until solid, or for up to 5 days.

Recipe Source: http://www.cookspiration.com

WHO WE ARE Our Mission Helping People Prosper Our Vision To enable children, youth and families to develop and grow, both as individuals and as a community, through programs and events offered in a safe, caring environment.

Our Values We offer faith-based and community-based programs and events where everyone is welcomed and real needs are met.

Our Partners CityReach Care Society is a registered charity serving Vancouver and the Tri-Cities. We receive generous support from a number of corporate and individual donors, without whom we could not do what we do.

Greg Janz Realty

Want to join us as a partner? Contact us and we would love to send you more information!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Sponsor a backpack for $25

Volunteer at our programs

Become a monthly sponsor

More info: lydiap@cityreach.org

Vancouver (Main Office): 2650 Slocan Street, Vancouver, BC, V5M 4E9 Tri-Cities: 1932 Cameron Avenue, Port Coquitlam, BC, V3C 1J3 604-254-CITY(2489) • CHARITY #8683 70206RR0001 www.cityreach.org