Founded in 1993, CityKidz is a Christian charity which works to develop supportive relationships with children and youth from low-income communities in Hamilton, Ontario. The charity reports that 26,000 children in Hamilton live in poverty, representing 20% of the city’s youth. CityKidz aims to provide the necessary love, guidance, and support so that children can escape poverty.

CityKidz operates Saturday programs during eight months of the year. Hosted in the charity’s Studio Theatre, kids are taught that they are loved by God, how to choose what is right, and that they can dream big. In F2018, 1,114 children aged 6-11 attended CityKidz Saturday sessions and 252 children aged 3-5 years attended the similar KinderKidz Saturday program. More than 13,000 meals were distributed to children attending Saturday programming. The charity also provides transportation, picking up kids in red buses along 23 routes as children may otherwise not have a way to get to the programs.

During the week, CityKidz visits children at home with teams of employees, volunteers, and CityKidz graduates. The individual attention helps to build relationships with the children involved. Families are informed of upcoming CityKidz Saturday session activities and may get referrals to other social services in Hamilton.

In addition to home visits, CityKidz graduates may participate in the CityYouth program to develop leadership skills. From graduates of CityYouth, select students become Weston Family Scholars. In F2018, ten new scholars were selected to receive financial support for post-secondary education.

CityKidz branches operate in Ottawa and Regina, providing other Canadian communities with a selection of the programming offered at the original Hamilton location. These branches are separate charities. Due to the relatively small amount of donations received by the branches, Ci has not prepared additional profiles. 

CityKidz is a medium-sized charity with donations and special events revenue of $2.2m in F2018. Administrative costs are 8% of revenues and fundraising costs are 10% of donations. For every dollar donated, 82 cents go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. CityKidz has $919k in funding reserves which could cover program costs for seven months.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to CityKidz for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 15, 2019 by Madison Kerr.