CIBC

The team in red that keeps coming back

For more than a decade, teams of CIBC employees have traded their desks for a day in our Workshop, building, repairing and refinishing the furniture that turns an empty apartment into a home.

In their first five years with us, CIBC teams made more than 40 visits and brought more than 300 volunteers. They assembled bedding and kitchen sets and helped our Workshop team build, fix, reupholster and restore furniture. The visits never stopped. Since 2023, our records count more than 30 CIBC volunteer days.

The work has changed with what families need. CIBC volunteers have painted cabinets and sanded tables, assembled beds, shelves and dressers, and cleaned and prepped household items for families' new homes. More recent teams have also tested more than 200 donated electronics and appliances and sorted boxes of housewares, so everything that goes into a home works when it gets there.

Every finished piece goes onto our showroom floor. Families referred by social service agencies choose what they need there: newcomers and refugees, people leaving homelessness, and women and children starting over after a shelter stay. Furniture Bank matches the furniture to the family. CIBC's volunteers make sure it is ready when they arrive.

Giving time is part of how CIBC shows up for its communities: the bank is working toward one million employee volunteer hours across Canada and the U.S. by 2032. CIBC has also given more than $400,000 in financial gifts since 2013, so its help reaches well beyond the Workshop door.

Many CIBC days end with a team photo under the Furniture Bank banner, tools in the air. Behind each one are families who will sleep in a real bed and eat at a real table in a place that finally feels like home.