Story of Impact: SVP a catalyst for growth at Take a Hike
Since 2001 SVP has invested in high-impact nonprofit organizations that are working to improve the lives of B.C.’s children and youth. The support we provide can be profound for an organization and enable them to grow and evolve significantly. Can SVP take credit for the entirety of the transformation we see over the years? Of course not. Is SVP a catalyst for this change? Absolutely.
As part of our three-year strategy, we want to build on what we do best. Our ultimate goal: Be an exceptional and catalytic funder that enables high-impact nonprofits to flourish and grow. All in the service of helping more kids and youth in B.C. thrive. As we look to the future, we want to also share successes of our past, starting with Take a Hike.
Take a Hike (TAH) works in partnership with local school districts to provide high-quality education and empower vulnerable youth with the skills and resilience they need to graduate high school, build healthy relationships, and achieve success—however they define it. They provide full-time mental health and emotional well-being supports embedded in an alternate education classroom. Their engagement with youth includes intensive and continuous clinical counselling, regular land-based learning adventures, and supporting youth in a safe and caring community.
Over the past 20 years, Take a Hike has developed a proven, trauma-informed, evidence-based program model that has transformed the lives of hundreds of youth and their families in B.C., with some students accessing Take a Hike’s programs for up to three years.
SVP’s relationship with Take a Hike began in 2004, when their programming consisted of one single classroom in Vancouver, serving approximately 20 youth. Founding SVP Partner Norm Francis saw real potential in the program and supported Take a Hike with a three-year $105,000 grant from the Francis Family Foundation to help them hire their first ever Executive Director. The Francis Family Foundation gave the donation as a co-funding grant through SVP to allow TAH to access SVP’s capacity-building programming. This support helped TAH to double their reach by adding a second classroom program.
“At the time the Take a Hike program was fairly new and had 20 teens operating out of a portable unit at John Oliver Secondary. The small TAH Foundation had a good Board but no staff. They wanted to expand to 40 teens and needed funding to hire a part-time Executive Director. Sheila Biggers, now head of JABC, was the first TAH ED ever hired,” says Norm Francis. “Over the years, well beyond the initial three-year investment, I would meet with the ED of the day and offer encouragement/support, mainly around expanding/scaling the program.”
In 2017, Take a Hike was ready to scale even further, and SVP was eager to support their next stage of growth with a three-year Scaling Grant of $150,000. In the five years since receiving a Scaling Grant, Take a Hike has grown from four programs in Vancouver, Burnaby, and the West Kootenays to 13 programs in nine different communities across B.C.
With the support of SVP’s Scaling Grant, Take a Hike was able to create their Theory of Change, a comprehensive description of how and why Take a Hike produces transformational changes in their students; Document Alumni Success Stories; expand their team with a Director of Program Innovation & Development; and develop a Social Return on Investment, which estimates that for every $1 spent on the Take a Hike program, a whopping $5.60 to $13.40 in social value is generated through their impact.
Most recently, SVP supported TAH with an IT Shared Services Grant and a Flex Fund Capacity Grant to support their IT needs.
“The tech upgrades we’ve been able to put in place thanks to SVP’s funding both ensures that the youth we serve can reach out for support when they need it, but also that the Take a Hike team can do our work more effectively, especially as we’re now across the province,” says Nav Nagra, Senior Manager, Communications at Take a Hike.
Since 2004, SVP has supported Take a Hike with $265,000 in funding and co-funding, with many SVP Partners also investing both time and additional gifts.
“SVP’s support of Take a Hike was and is truly transformational. Take Hike has come leaps and bounds in a very short amount of time, and we are growing quite quickly now because of the early support that SVP was able to give,” says Nav Nagra.
Take a Hike continues to be closely connected to the SVP community. Over the years, many of our SVP Partners have sat on the Take a Hike Board: SVP’s Board chair, Nicole Geyer, currently sits as TAH’s Board chair. Past TAH staff have joined SVP as Partners, SVP Partners have joined as TAH staff, and the TAH staff supports our Investee community through peer-to-peer connections by sharing their experience in government relations and scaling.
Today, Take a Hike serves nearly 150 youth with 13 programs across B.C., has a staff team of 48 dedicated nonprofit changemakers, and has an annual budget of nearly $3.8M. Take a Hike’s self-paced, individualized education plans and experiential learning give youth the opportunity to relate to academics differently and take all the courses required to graduate high school. Each program has a full-time registered mental health clinician who provides continuous, intensive support, helping youth develop social and emotional skills, work through challenges, and address mental health concerns. Take a Hike youth are re-engaged in school and community, with many doubling their pre-program school attendance levels. On average, 90% of Take a Hike youth graduate from high school, compared with provincial graduation rates of 84%.
“Bottom line,” says Norm, “Take a Hike Foundation is one of SVP’s biggest successes to date.