GIVING TUESDAY: FIELD TRIPS FOR VIVE KIDS!

• Rollerblading parties with pizza (4)
• Trip to Sky Zone with pizza (1)
• Open swims at the North Tonawanda Aquatic Center (2)

Your investment will enable us to fulfill these wishes for our Vive kids! Our goal is $5,000 but we need YOU to help us reach it.

And our friends at Harmac Medical Products will match the first $1,000 in donations dollar for dollar! That means if you are part of the first $1,000, your investment will go twice as far!

What is Vive? 

Vive is a 24/7/365 shelter for individuals who wish to make a refugee claim in Canada or who are seeking asylum protection in the United States. Vive provides safety, shelter, food, and legal help to more than 1,000 people every year. In our most recently completed fiscal year, Vive housed more than 600 children. Historically, 65% of Vive clients are single mothers and their children.
 
Why is children's programming important at Vive?

Many Vive residents have suffered from war violence, physical abuse, or torture or have family members who have suffered in these ways. Asylees arrive with a great deal of emotional scarring, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Children at Vive have often lived a transient life and either have no previous formal education or have had their education greatly interrupted.

Vive annually houses 30-60 children and teens whose families are seeking U.S. asylum (long-term residents). Vive also houses families that are making a refugee claim at the Canadian border (short-term residents). Children of Canada-bound families are typically not enrolled in school, while children of U.S. asylum-seeking families do attend school in Buffalo.

Our children’s program at Vive gives youth residents opportunities for structured play, formal and informal learning, social interaction, and fun. During the winter, Vive kids (and their parents/guardians) especially benefit from opportunities to get out of the shelter and play in a physically active way. Fitness-focused field trips, like rollerblading, swimming, and playing on trampolines, help residents “blow off steam” and reduce levels of stress, anxiety, and frustration. When living in a group residence with little privacy, these opportunities to go off-site are highly valued!

Let our kids tell you why they love children’s programming at Vive.

Messi (9 years old): The best part is that I can have fun with my friends that I met here. We have fun doing cool stuff that we don’t do in school. It made me inspired to do stuff like art – I love art now since we did that art class.

Alfa (7 years old): [Children’s programming] helps me be a better friend to my friends and now I like trying new things out. I didn’t like doing new things before going to the classes.

Christabell (11 years old): I was pretty shy when I first came here, but the teachers and my friends [in the program] helped me be less shy.

 

In the event that this campaign exceeds its goal, any additional funds raised will go directly into additional children's programming at Vive (examples include paying for art supplies, bringing additional activities, like hip hop dance classes or music workshops, into the shelter, and supporting children's program staff salaries).