Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study - Community development / Social responsibility
Swire Properties Community Ambassador Program has recently celebrated its 2nd anniversary. It has proved very popular with the company staff, who appreciate the opportunity to show their caring attitude. It is reported in a newsletter called Ambassador News on a quarterly basis.
Social Responsibility is one of the core values at Swire Properties and the company enthusiastically supports these endeavours. To date over 150 staff have enrolled as members. The Programme actively encourages participation by family members and friends as well as colleagues from other Swire Group companies.
Each activity undertaken as part of the Community Ambassador Programme is the joint effort of many contributors. The working committee has been organised into 4 functional teams:
- Programme Team - responsible for sourcing and contacting suitable organisations for volunteer visitations and making detailed arrangements for actual activities on the day.
- Promotions Team - responsible for recruiting volunteers to join in the activities as well as preparing write-ups.
- Training Team - responsible for sourcing and arranging training sessions for volunteers before certain activities that require particular skills.
- Finance - responsible for keeping accounts of all the activities.
The Programme provides services at least once per month to those in need in the society. The primary service targets are the elderly and under-privileged children or families.
The Programme now has its own website, which is housed on the corporate intranet. It provides background about how the Programme started, its purpose, the team structure, latest services and training and a calendar of the yearly plan. It also has summaries of previous activities with photos and video clips.
The activities provided have included horse riding, skating, hair cutting, environmental outings, computer coaching and visiting interesting places such as the Coca-Cola museum at the Swire Beverages plant.