DONATE
Your donations mean the world to our community members and donating is simple, too!
We are a Charity!
Your membership at Vivo is not just a membership to a facility.
Your membership supports programs like Everybody Plays — our way of helping neighbours in the community access recreation, play, and social connection at Vivo.
OUR HISTORY
The Vivo for Healthier Generations Society (‘Vivo’), formerly known as the Nose Creek Sports and Recreation Association, operates a registered charity committed to programs and services aligned with its cause: raising healthier generations. The Society primarily serves residents living in north-central Calgary and is registered under the Societies Act of the Province of Alberta. In April 2010 the Society was granted charity status.
Vivo was created in 1997 as a collaborative community project to develop and maintain the Nose Creek regional recreation facility. The Society opened the facility for operations in September of 2004. The facility was initially named “Cardel Place” through an exclusive naming rights agreement made available to Cardel Homes. On April 1, 2015, upon the expiration of the original Naming Agreement, the facility was re-named “Vivo for Healthier Generations” to align with and reflect the Society’s cause.
The Society leases the facility from The City of Calgary but is not run by the City. Vivo is a self-sustaining charitable enterprise.
The legal name of the Society was changed from Nose Creek Sports and Recreation Association by a vote of the Members at the Annual General Meeting on May 4, 2019.
All donations and tax receipts are issued under our legal name, Vivo for Healthier Generations Society. Our Canada Revenue Agency Charitable Registration Number is 88308 2117 RR0001.
Donor Data and Transparency
Vivo takes the utmost care in protecting our donor information and ensuring that your gift is invested effectively in the community. We adhere to the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Donor Bill of Rights and Code of Ethical Standards.
For further detail, you can find recent annual reports, audited financials and links to Vivo’s T3010 filed with the Canada Revenue Agency here on our website.
We are accountable to our funders and want to be transparent about how your gift has been expended. If you have further questions, contact us at donate@vivo.ca.
OUR IMPACT
What we do
Vivo is working to create made-in-Alberta solutions to this provincial and national challenge. The organization operates a self-sustaining regional recreation centre in north-central Calgary, one of the most diverse and rapidly growing communities. Vivo has over 1.2 million visits annually.
Our goals
Vivo aims to demonstrate positive 10% shifts in:
- Physical Activity
- Social Connection
- Outdoor Engagement
- Intergenerational Interaction
- Spontaneous Play
“My favourite part is everything”
Child, Play Project Participant
Our Story
Why We Exist
“It’s about longevity. I want to be around when my kids get older.” Shares Amanda Leung, a Vivo member, wife, and mother of three.
Our community has taught us that the recipe for healthier generations isn’t complicated: play is where physical activity and social connection meet. Making room for play means getting active, both physically and socially.
“Play matters to our family, as we have found that we are at our best when we are active and moving. With spirited parents and spirited children, play is more than a want for us, it is a need.” Adds Craig Rieger, a Vivo Member, husband, and father of three.
ParticipACTION gave our kids a D+ for physical activity and our government projects loneliness will be a global epidemic for people of all ages. Physical inactivity and lack of connection are putting our lives, and our children’s lives, at risk. At Vivo, we are committed to doing something about this. In October 2014 The Conference Board of Canada forecast that getting just 10% of Canadians to moderately increase their physical activity and decrease sedentary time will increase Canada’s GDP by $7.5 billion and lower health care costs by $2.6 billion by 2040.
We’ve committed to demonstrating positive 10% shifts in physical activity, social connection, outdoor engagement, spontaneous play, and intergenerational interaction.
HOW WE DO IT
Vivo Play Project
The Vivo Play Project is about responding to the demands of the community by helping them bring more free play to north-central Calgary and measuring the impact it has on living healthier, happier lives. This unique initiative is one-part public health research and one-part social-innovation making it a social research and development project. We are one year into a four-year adventure:
- We’re doing research to understand how play improves our health
- Training Play Ambassadors to run FREE pop-up play events all year round
- Improving parks so they are better places to play, by building play hubs
- Inventing digital tools to help communities understand and take control of their own health data
Year one included:
- Over 120 pop-up play experiences and community events in north-central Calgary
- More than 200 experiments in co-creating, training, and delivering play to the community
- Vivo Play Project team engaged more than 2500 individuals in play experiences
HOW WE DO IT
Everybody plays
Everybody Plays is our way of removing barriers to play – there are three ways we do that:
1. Collecting Donations: generous donations from the community make this program possible by helping to subsidize memberships for others!
2. Membership Subsidy: those generous donations allow us to set-up qualifying community members with a discounted membership, in alignment with the City of Calgary’s Fair Entry Program
3. Program Subsidy: our partners are Jumpstart and Kidsport provide subsidy to children and families who qualify, in alignment with the City of Calgary’s Fair Entry Program
Last year generous donations from donors and community members helped raise over $50,000 to support children and families in the community – let’s work together to raise even more this year!
HOW WE DO IT
All In for Community is a campaign to raise the remaining 10% of funds required for Vivo’s expansion – a 135,000 square foot, $62 million project that will unite all ages, abilities and cultures. You can become a donor, volunteer or champion and make a difference today.
