"I am my sister's keeper."
Vivian Scott Chew was raised in the Baptist Church and was taught, she says, “if I can help somebody, as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain.” She doesn’t remember a moment in her life when her mother, her greatest inspiration, wasn’t pushing her towards a life of service. As a child, Vivian delivered meals to homebound seniors, and her mother encouraged her to stay and sit with them to hear their stories of journeying up from the South. At the time, she had no idea that the wisdom and values they were imparting to her would continue to guide her more than 50 years later.
Vivian first heard about Covenant House because her mother was moved by the organization’s mission to support young adults living on the streets and escaping violence at home. When the first lady of New Jersey, Tammy Murphy, recommended that Vivian join the Covenant House board of directors in 2020, memories of her mother’s passion for the mission came flooding back. As a busy executive and in advisory positions for several boards, Vivian wanted to be sure she could fully commit to taking on another leadership role and that she could establish a deep connection with the organization, similarly to how she feels when she is working with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). She started to do her research about Covenant House and learned not just about young people experiencing homelessness but, also, survivors of human trafficking in our care at Covenant House - this is what jumped out to her and led her to choose board service. You see, Vivian has a close connection with a family whose oldest daughter was trafficked, and she is “hell bent on this not happening to other kids”, she says.
In addition to her lifelong passion for improving the lives of everyone around her, Vivian will bring to Covenant House a masterful ability to fuse together philanthropy with the arts. In 1998, Vivian launched TimeZone International, a marketing and promotion company that assists U.S. artists with their global careers. She and her husband, music director Ray Chew, established event production company Chew Entertainment in 1999 and the Power 2 Inspire Foundation in 2013 to help cultivate and develop the next generation of Black and brown music creators and music business leaders. Their summer internship/mentorship program virtually hosts young people from both the U.S. and the U.K. for a four-week program, including over 75 mentors from all over the world, and this year, some of those interns will be residents of Covenant House, which delights Vivian beyond measure.
When asked about fostering absolute respect and unconditional love, the core of our Covenant House mission, Vivian unpacked the well-known quote, “I am my sister’s keeper.” She said it translates to “I am my sister” in her eyes because she is willing to accept and carry the responsibilities of her fellow sisters and brothers selflessly and wholeheartedly. Vivian says “I am only as successful as the tribe around me.”
