Most of our readers know our blog for its helpful moving related content. From packing to downsizing to last-minute planning, we’ve covered just about every moving topic you could think of — and we have no plans to stop sharing that content to make moving as stress-free as possible for the Two Small Men Blog audience!
But did you know that the Two Small Men team is also heavily involved with community organizations around Canada? We believe that businesses have a responsibility to support and give back to the communities where they operate. Our entire team is passionate about engaging with community, so we like to give back in ways that allow our staff at every level of the company to be involved — usually this looks like donating our professional moving services to community partners who need help with moves throughout the year. We provide office moves, deliveries, moves into and out of storage, and moves of a more sensitive nature to those transitioning out of shelters whenever our partners call on us.
This summer, one of those partners was United Way BC. During July and August, the Two Small Men team in Kelowna donated several days of delivery services to the amazing team at UWBC for their annual Child Safety Initiative, through which funding partners worked together to provide 520 child car seats in the Okanagan and Kootenays.
According to UWBC, “Over 150 000 children live in poverty in BC, and around one in five do not have access to an appropriate car seat.” This statistic was staggering to us, and when we spoke with our partners at UWBC, we knew right away that families keeping their children safer was an outcome we wanted to help achieve.
Community Need is Increasing
As reported by UWBC, the impact of COVID-19, cost of living increases, and the ongoing housing crisis have forced many families in Canada into making impossibly difficult decisions when it comes to meeting basic needs like shelter and food versus purchasing safe, reliable car seats for their children. Per UWBC’s own article:
“Since 2015, United Way BC and partners have worked collaboratively to address this gap and have provided over 700 car seats across the Okanagan to community agencies that support low-income families. In 2022, the initiative has secured 320 car seats and 200 booster seats through the generous contributions of the funding partners.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has further deepened the need families are facing, and we are grateful to all our partners for coming together to expand this essential program,” says Kim Winchell, Provincial Director, Community Impact & Investment at United Way British Columbia. “We will continue to work hard on initiatives like this to strengthen vital connections in our community.””
This year, Two Small Men teams in Kelowna were able to assist with the distribution of 520 car seats to community organizations across the Southern Interior of BC, including Lake Country, Kelowna, West Kelowna, the Westbank First Nation, Summerland, Penticton, Oliver, Keremeos, Vernon, Lumby, Nakusp, Enderby, Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Revelstoke, and Kootenays. The United Way BC has a fantastic team of volunteers who assisted with that distribution as well — when it comes to meeting community needs, we have always found that many hands make light work!
We want to give a big thanks and an even bigger round of applause to the amazing team at UWBC who are working around the clock to positively impact the communities we both care so deeply about. Our team is so grateful to have been a part of this year’s Child Safety Initiative, and we can’t wait to see what future outcomes we’ll be able to achieve together through this partnership.
You can learn more about UWBC’S Child Safety Initiative by clicking here!