Our commitment to community investment means consistently being a visible community leader, contributing to the Canadian credit union system and supporting worthwhile international co-operative work. Envision Credit Union fulfills its community commitment through its own activities and through the programs of the Envision Credit Union Charitable Foundation.
We provide funding for health care, education, recreation, children’s programs and the arts and athletics with no expectation of monetary profit. Instead, we invest in communities because doing so is central to our values. It’s our way of reaching out as a good neighbour and a willing partner.
Project SPARK is a literacy enhancement program that provides second-language families with an understanding of how they can best encourage their children’s literacy learning in the home. In 2004, Envision funded the purchase of several thousand dual-language books and alphabet charts for 1,300 children participating in the project at approximately 55 Surrey schools.
The Envision Read ‘n Rec Program is another literacy program designed to improve reading skills among youngsters. It was introduced to 20 students at Chilliwack’s Central Elementary Community School in 2004. Our business-education partnership with the Chilliwack School District will see us contribute $30,000 over the next three years for this worthwhile program.
In 2004, the Envision Credit Union Charitable Foundation made a dream come true for SOS Children’s Village BC. The Foundation raised over $560,000 for the construction of two homes for at-risk foster children.
Many people dug deep to turn the Envision House Project into a reality. Our employees, who made it their charity of the year in 2004, contributed approximately $30,000. And our member-owners likewise donated generously to this project. Collectively, their efforts helped us achieve that fundamental Envision value of neighbour helping neighbour.
Funding through the Envision House Project provides SOS Children’s Village BC with two stable, long-term family homes for children in British Columbia who are unlikely to return home or to be adopted. Each house is staffed by a highly experienced foster parent, and, where possible, brothers and sisters are kept together.
The SOS concept is unique. If the foster parent cannot take care of the children, the children remain in the home and a new foster parent is brought in. Growing up in the same home, attending the same school and having the same friends provides a more stable environment for at-risk children than the conventional method of shifting kids from one environment to another.
The Envision Credit Union Charitable Foundation started a three-year project in Nepal in 2004. This project sees the Foundation dedicating $30,000 to help strengthen 70 emerging women’s co-operatives in rural areas of that impoverished country. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is matching the Foundation’s donation three to one, raising the project’s funding to $120,000.
The funding will be used to train Nepalese women, providing them with the technical support to open and operate co-ops. Through this project, Envision and CIDA seek to empower the women of Nepal to make a positive difference in their own lives and in the lives of their fellow citizens.
In 2004, 804 Chilliwack residents laced up for the Envision Run for Mom, a sponsorship recently created to raise funds for Chilliwack General Hospital programs that support women and children. Held annually on Mother’s Day, the Run for Mom features an eight-kilometre road race, a five-kilometre fun walk and a one-kilometre kid’s run. The event raised $34,800, a 32% increase over 2003’s Run for Mom.
That old favourite, popcorn, was behind our launch in 2004 of a new fundraising program. This program provides free popcorn machines and popcorn to non-profit groups for fundraising events. At last count, we had provided enough popcorn to fill about 8,000 bags.
Envision raised the torch in 2004 as a proud sponsor of the 2004 BC Summer Games. This event celebrates athletic achievement and community spirit.
Held in Abbotsford in 2004, the games hosted more than 2,400 athletes in 25 sports over four days of competition. The athletes were joined by some 500 coaches, managers and officials and by more than 3,000 volunteers in an experience that will lead many toward involvement at the provincial and national levels.
In the interest of promoting healthy communities through active living, Envision became a founding partner in the Abbotsford Community Health Committee’s in motion program in 2004. Our $20,000 initial donation will be used by the program to encourage Abbotsford residents to include regular physical activity in their daily lives. The goal is to position Abbotsford as a leader in setting the standard for healthy communities.
Among the beneficiaries of our numerous cash donations in 2004 was the Delta Hospice Society, which received $4,000 to publish a fundraising booklet. The booklet helped the society generate in excess of $60,000 in public donations.
In late 2004, a tsunami struck a devastating blow to communities in Sri Lanka. Envision responded by pledging $70,000 to the Canadian Cooperative Association to support long-term recovery efforts in that nation. Our donation will help the Sri Lankan credit union system provide temporary shelter, cooking utensils and support for orphaned children. It also will assist in rebuilding 800 thrift and credit co-operatives destroyed by the tsunami.
Back home in British Columbia, the avian flu epidemic had a serious impact on the province’s poultry industry in 2004. Envision assisted those of its member-owners who were affected by the epidemic with a variety of financing options.
