RIVA

A core mission at the Edmonton based data company, Riva, is to be a part of the solution. That means investment in the community and an emphasis on volunteering to make an impact.

“When COVID hit, we realized that we weren't able to volunteer as much because a lot of organizations were closed or weren't accepting volunteers, so we needed to pivot a little,” says Jinan Murra, a member of Riva’s human resources team. 

That’s where Free Play entered the picture. 

Jinan says Riva learned about Free Play through their CTO Stephan who regularly listens to CBC Edmonton.

“Tim Adams was on the show at one point talking about his story and why he founded Free Play, I think it was called Free Footie at the time, that story really resonated with Stephan so he wanted us to support Free Play.”

As a multi-year team sponsor, Riva helps to support dozens of kids in their pursuit of play, a simple daily activity with complex and wide reaching impacts for families and their communities. 

At Free Play, sports is just one piece of the puzzle to empower kids to be leaders, value health and wellbeing, and access programs without any barriers. The results are clearly seen at partner schools who witness grades improve, wellbeing and behavior changes take effect.

“The values and the mission of Free Play really resonated with us and our values, specifically being part of the solution and having fun.”

Commitment to service fuels the work of Free Play staff and is a value that Riva also commits to with their membership in the pledge one per cent initiative that sees companies set aside time for paid staff volunteer work. 

“It’s made a huge impact on our team, especially when we’ve done group volunteer events, because a lot of people kind of hesitate to go out volunteering.”

“This really encourages people to go out and help in their community.” 

The goal for Riva is to continue their broad community work with a commitment to support the team they sponsor at Free Play with more in person time spent nurturing their community.

“We got to meet our team when we gave them their jerseys, but we want to be able to support them during their time with Free Play.”  

“We hope we can attend more of the tournament and the games that happen.”