Since our start in 2016, helping others has been an integral part of RE Royalties company culture, and our team places a high importance on volunteering with a variety of organizations. This week RE Royalties went to Covenant House Vancouver to learn more about the important work this charity does in our community.
We presented our donation of $25,000 to help finance the Community Support Services, which is part of the Street Outreach and Drop-in program. Covenant House’s Street Outreach team helps kids aged 16 to 24 who are living, or at risk of living, on Vancouver’s streets.
The Outreach Team is the “face” of Covenant House, finding kids in crisis, the team builds trusting relationships with street youth by meeting them where they are and by being a consistent, supportive presence in their lives. Travelling on foot, the Outreach Team find youth in crisis and offers them food, hygiene supplies, minor medical attention, and friendship.
Additionally, team members invite youth to visit the Drop-In Program where they can access hot meals, showers, clothing and laundry, housing workers and mental health counselling.
Read this story to learn how Street Outreach and Drop-in services with Covenant House Vancouver positively helped Alex.
Although the 2018 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count found 349 youth experiencing homelessness in Vancouver, 742 individual youth accessed the Drop-In Program last year and the Outreach team supported 447 youth on the street.
Covenant House is in the midst of a capital expansion project and the RE Royalties team had an opportunity to tour the brand new building. They are also starting construction on a second building across the street with goals to be a LEED certified facility.
They’ve undertaken many initiatives to reach this certification including, a motion detected lighting system to reduce energy consumption, a Green Housekeeping plan, and a My Waste program for compost and recycling.
We felt it was important to learn first-hand how our donation was making a difference and the impact that Covenant House is having on meeting the immediate needs of youth experiencing homelessness, impressed us.
One of our primary commitments at RE Royalties has been to strengthen our engagement with stakeholders on issues that are of importance to them.
Our donation will enable Covenant House to provide wraparound care and support for 20 youth throughout the entire year! This type of support spans from accessing hot meals, showers, clothing and laundry, housing workers and mental health counselling. The services are youth-directed, tailored to their specific needs and are offered with unconditional love and absolute respect.
This video explains Covenant House services in more detail.
RE Royalties is pleased to support Covenant House and we want to encourage your organization to do the same. You can send your team to volunteer and you can get involved in a variety of corporate opportunities.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s)
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms
Target: 1.1 By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
Poverty is more than the lack of income and resources to ensure a sustainable livelihood. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making.
RE Royalties is dedicating ourselves to a human-centric, rights-based approach to help bring improvements to the quality of life for others.