Small Business – Joint Winners
Surfers Paradise Management Ltd with Volunteering Gold Coast; and Plunge Diving with National Parks Association of New South Wales
Medium Business
Chess Engineering with Canterbury Bankstown Career Connections
Large Business
ANZ with the Brotherhood of St Laurence
Special Award – Impact on a Community
The Shell Company of Australia with The Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and The Centre for Community Child Health and The Smith Family, the Benevolent Society, Berry Street Victoria and the Department for Victorian Communities (Financial Literacy Partnership)
Special Award – Indigenous
BP Australia with Yirara College of the Finke River Mission Inc.
Special Award – Longevity
BHP Billiton with CSIRO Education and the Australia Science Teacher’s Association
Note: No Media Award was given in 2007
Small Business – Joint Winners
Surfers Paradise Management Ltd with Volunteering Gold Coast
Surfers Paradise Management (SPM) was the official event coordinator for Gold Coast Schoolies Week in 2005 and 2006. It formed a partnership with Volunteering Gold Coast, assuming responsibility for helping the 50,000 young people visiting the Gold Coast to celebrate responsibly and safely while ensuring the safety of locals and their property.
Surfers Paradise Management provided event management expertise and orientation courses in such areas as the logistics involved in training, feeding and rostering a large group of volunteers. It also approached key local businesses on behalf of Volunteering Gold Coast to request donations for Schoolies Support Team volunteers, and co-ordinated the delivery of these donations. Surfers Paradise Management staff gave time on a volunteer basis (after hours) to assist Volunteering Gold Coast with such matters as processing application forms, taking identification photographs and escorting Schoolies Support Team members to media interviews for which they provided interview technique coaching.
Surfers Paradise Management had a formal supplier contract with Volunteering Gold Coast and remunerated the organisation for its skills and services. This additional funding has been put back into improving Volunteering Gold Coast's systems and processes for the greater benefit of the community.
Volunteering Gold Coast was able to provide access to its database of 2,000 active volunteers in the Gold Coast community. It has a voluntary staff of 15 who performed various roles including reception services, transport services, general office administration, public relations and financial management as well as guidance, encouragement and leadership to the 300 volunteers who assisted during the 2006 Schoolies Week.
Over a three-month period the partnership brought together specific professional competencies and the resources of an extended volunteer movement to provide effective support and protection services to a highly at-risk group (ie some 50,000 relatively unsupervised school-leavers with access to alcohol) and to the community in which the Schoolies Week celebrations took place.
Each party to the partnership thus brought particular elements to the exercise and benefited in ways which will enhance the future performance of their respective roles. In the short term, ie the duration of Schoolies Week, the partnership achieves important benefits for the community including keeping young and at-risk visitors safe and helping to protect local residents and their property from the effects of antisocial behaviour.
In the longer term, the community benefits from the development of volunteer skills (which may in some cases lead to employment opportunities) and from the reinforcement of cooperative links between SPM and community support organisations which provide services during Schoolies Week.
Plunge Diving with National Parks Association of NSW
“HarbourKeepers” is a program of the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA), offering ongoing ways for the community to protect, restore and explore Sydney Harbour, its foreshores and islands. Activities include scientific research, clearing, cleaning and regeneration. Plunge Diving is recognised as “Primary Dive Supporter” with HarbourKeepers and ensures this volunteer effort is sustained.
Plunge Diving provide dive gear free of charge on a frequent and regular basis for carrying out underwater activities. It also provides technical advice, special discounts for volunteers, access to staff time and venues as well as promoting HarbourKeepers in its promotional channels.
In return, HarbourKeepers provides diverse and extensive promotion of the partnership and the support provided by Plunge Diving (eg its website, e-newsletter, journal and media events).
One of the key benefits of the partnership has been the engagement of volunteers who do not need to incur expense hiring or buying diving equipment to undertake underwater activities for HarbourKeepers. It has also resulted in an increase in the number of activities which can be conducted eg fish surveys. Additional benefits include raised awareness through cross promotion and improved environmental outcomes overall.
Plunge Diving gains from HarbourKeepers extensive networks and media exposure through NPA’s media profile and publicity which generates clientele for Plunge Diving. Plunge Diving also benefits from its association with HarbourKeepers in enhanced reputation and is increasingly seen as an environmentally responsible organisation.
Although a relatively new partnership there are obvious synergies enjoyed by both parties. More broadly, the harbour is improved aesthetically and environmentally through the following examples:
- Data collection and scientific research contributions
- Clean ups and removal of harmful rubbish
- 70 volunteer divers have received a PADI Specialty Diver Certification to conduct independent fish surveys
- Over 110 fish surveys have been completed to identify trends in fish populations and contribute to marine decision making
- Increased community awareness through equipment loan for media opportunities and appearances
- Facilitated provision of equipment for a new TAFE course for HarbourKeeper volunteers
Barriers to volunteer divers participating in conservation and environmental activities are reduced through this association and anything which can increase the involvement of volunteers in this age is to be applauded. Through its integrated association with HarbourKeepers, Plunge Diving is making a real contribution to the protection and enhancement of our iconic Sydney Harbour and more broadly, marine conservation through enabling research.
Medium Business Award
Chess Engineering with Canterbury Bankstown Career Connections (CBCC)
This partnership aims to bring the worlds of industry and education together by enabling young people to gain valuable work experience while helping to resolve skill shortages in the engineering sector. Past and present students, aged between 13 and 19 years, from 34 different schools within the Canterbury and Bankstown local government areas undertake work experience within a general engineering workshop. Here, the students have the opportunity to experience employment in the engineering field while developing the skills they need to gain and maintain employment. Skills learned range from: interpersonal skills, practical experience, job interview skills and cultural awareness. Chess Engineering also benefits through its interaction with these students and their teachers and through its wider exposure to the general community.
Chess Engineering brings its skills and resources to the partnership. It provides staff who deliver practical training and act as mentors to the students with whom they interact. They provide the students with valuable advice and information about this career sector and put together tours and information sessions for the teachers and parents of the participants. This business provides, at no charge, the use of a workshop and other facilities together with products, materials and equipment used in the training projects. It actively encourages its staff to become involved in the partnership’s activities.
The CBCC promotes the involvement of the students in these programs and they represent the partnership to the wider community and to other business organisations. It ensures that all the administrative and organisational aspects of the partnership are met, including legal and school departmental requirements. They also provide insurance and transport where necessary.
The Business partner benefits through an enhanced community reputation, increased social awareness within all levels of the company, development of teaching, supervisory and mentoring skills by staff, and boosted staff morale. They take an active part in nurturing the skills and interests of those youngsters who will later be needed to meet their industry’s staffing requirements.
The Community partner benefits from an enhanced recognition of their function in the community; more job opportunities for their clients; meaningful, satisfying work and increased morale for staff; and higher staff retention as a result. They also benefit from a greater exposure to industry groups, developing networking opportunities which increase the avenues open to their clientele – students looking for work on completion of their education.
This partnership truly is mutually beneficial.
It demonstrates the possibilities inherent in this type of partnering arrangement. The Community is enriched and its members are given the chance to reach their full potential at the same time as the Business is able to give its staff members a chance to develop all of their skills in a meaningful fashion.
Large Business Award
ANZ with Brotherhood of St Laurence
This partnership has established services for the financially disadvantaged. Initially they developed the Saver Plus program and more recently piloted a new program, the Progress Loans.
The Brotherhood had identified that people on low incomes were able to repay small loans but an interest-free program was unsustainable as it required fundraising for operational costs. It partnered again with ANZ to provide the Progress Loan which offers people on low incomes access to loans of between $500 and $3000 to pay for household goods, self-development, medical and car expenses.
ANZ contributes expertise in marketing strategies to assist with promoting the product, assessing credit-worthiness, maintaining the loan accounts and funding all loans until they are repaid, as well as covering costs eg, marketing, training and loan officer salaries.
The Brotherhood contributes an intimate knowledge of the market including money management issues in low-income families. They bring an existing level of trust with the recipients of the loans and regularly assess the impact the loans have in the lives of those borrowing under the program. They contribute social research in this regard.
ANZ benefits are broad and include developing a sustainable model for micro-finance, employee engagement through community involvement (an area surveyed as important to ANZ staff), being able to address a lack of access to safe and fair affordable credit, improved brand awareness and improving attitudes and systems in assessing credit-worthiness.
The Brotherhood gains from an increased capacity of being able to replicate a model of finance in other locations, better meeting the needs of its client group and thus an ability to reallocate funds, which they would have used for interest-free loans, through more effective automated systems.
Specific examples of outcomes for the targeted community are detailed in the nomination and include being able to access funds to buy a car to transport a disabled child to treatment sessions and repairing a car to assist with gaining employment. These people previously had limited access to interest free loans and often had to borrow from less reputable loan companies that charged high interest. The people are now able to repay loans, restore their pride and establish a credit rating. People are also increasing their financial literacy.
The pilot program assisted 140 people, the majority of whom were female, who borrowed $1500. Repayment performance is exceeding ANZ’s mainstream loan products. Consideration for rolling out the program and extending its reach is underway.
This is a new extension to a sustainable, well thought-out partnership that has definable outcomes for disadvantaged people.
Special Award - Impact on a Community
The Shell Company of Australia with The Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and The Centre for Community Child Health and The Smith Family, the Benevolent Society, Berry Street Victoria and the Department for Victorian Communities (Financial Literacy Partnership)
Shell has strategically evolved its social investment program from a range of philanthropic and sponsorship activities to a select number of strong community business partnerships at national level, supplemented by local community investment around its key facilities. Its key areas of focus are care for the environment, education and health.
Two of Shell’s newest and ongoing national partnerships both focus on early childhood development (ECD) and these include:
- The “Australian Early Development Index (AEDI): Building Better Communities for Children” project, in partnership with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research; and
- “Let’s Read” in partnership with The Smith Family and the Centre for Community Child Health.
In the programs, Shell Australia provides: funding; profile; expertise in administration, event management and partnership management; promotional items and marketing; matched payroll giving, supported employee volunteering in the programs, and networking opportunities.
The Community partners provide: infrastructure; staff; operational funds and programming, training, event promotion, monitoring of performance, strategic planning and academic credibility, networking opportunities, logistics and high quality resources for parents.
Both partners receive positive benefits from the partnership. For the business this includes recognition as a business involved in the community, opportunities for employees to work with community organisations and be supported to do so. For the various community organisations, in addition to the substantial funding received, they are given opportunity. The early childhood development projects benefit all the partners.
The Business partner benefits from an enhanced corporate reputation. It is provided with an instrument through which to engage with government, and it provides an opportunity to give employees positive experiences and a sense of pride in their company. It contributes to the education and formative experiences of the company employees of the future.
The Community partners benefit from funding, profile, wider business and government networks, and the ability to leverage the reputation of the program for funding and input from other major corporations.
The project funding is long term and there is a long term commitment from both parties to work together to achieve the outcomes. The nature of the projects target early intervention and prevention based on clear evidence based research ensuring a long term outcome.
There is strong evidence that the partnerships target a wide range of investments focusing on the environment, education and health so as to maximise a broad impact on the community. They appear to regularly assess whether they are making an impact and note as an example the discontinuation of a program where they assessed that other avenues were available to fund the program.
Positive business results include: community recognition as a socially responsible business; positive media opportunities and opportunities for employees to be involved in the partnerships.
The projects described provide long-term and lasting benefits through improving the learning and teaching experiences of children in their early years when they are most receptive to education. They encourage a whole-of-family participation in the children's schooling and community awareness of health issues and initiatives with population sensitive planning incorporated, eg better support and peer led breast feeding program for teenage mothers. These early experiences and positive inputs will help to form the citizens of the future and inform their contribution to society in the long-term.
The partnership has shown an impressive array of positive benefits to the community through an investment philosophy which certainly has led to a great impact on these sectors of community activity.
The company is helping to form the community in which it operates, where its employees live and where its future employees will be drawn from. Its activities help to provide a stable environment for current operations and to encourage future growth.
Special Award – Contribution to Indigenous Communities
BP Australia with Yirara College of the Finke River Mission Inc
To address the crippling impact that petrol sniffing has had on Indigenous communities in Central Australia, BP Australia began by undertaking research, by visiting, consulting and forging relationships with affected communities and by leveraging the extensive government and community interventions undertaken to date. BP developed a three pronged approach with local partners, including:
- A deterrent to sniffing, which resulted in Opal being developed – a new fuel that would not result in a ‘high’ when sniffed.
- Diversionary activities to redirect the energies of remote youth, including life skill camps, which were linked to a return to school initiative.
- This return to school initiative formed the basis of a long term development pathway.
For the past four years, BP has contributed employee time, resources and technical skills. Employees have undertaken tasks such as community engagement, product development, refining, supply and marketing with 20 individuals continuing to have direct involvement with Opal across these functions today.
BP committed to undertake extensive stakeholder consultation that captured the different layers of Government, community, non-Government, media and local communities. This contribution was made to ensure the best possible outcome could be achieved.
As a result of the need for internal collaboration across a variety of business units to develop Opal, BP has become more cohesive as a business, which has long-term benefits for employee moral and business timeliness. The BP Kwinana refinery and technical experts gained considerable pride knowing that their invention will ultimately save lives.
BP has been able to form new commercial relationships with Australian based companies, and due to the fact that petrol sniffing has also challenged 19 other countries across the world, BP has been able to propose Opal as a potential solution to assist these countries.
After four years of the partnership, reports now indicate up to a 95% decrease in petrol sniffing, and the proportion of ‘at risk’ students accessing education growing by 25%. BP has gone a long way to addressing the issue of petrol sniffing in Central Australia.
The project has also provided an extensive network between Government, business and the community that will serve to address other social issues going forward.
It is evidence that technical know-how with a social conscience can result in positive outcomes.
Special Award – Longevity
BHP Billiton with CSIRO Education
The partnership’s main product is the BHP Billiton Science Awards - the premier national school student science research and science teacher awards – that are designed to foster the development of science in schools, encourage excellence and participation in the study and application of science and to reward excellence in teaching and learning.
It is clear that the partners engage creatively and have constructed a healthy relationship that continues to grow. The business has collaborated by providing annual funding, assisting in the promotions of the Awards, providing employees to participate in the judging of the Awards, providing project management advice and allowing the use of in-house materials and expertise.
The community organisation facilitates the promotion of the national competition and coordinates the provision of entries from the state/territory programs. They also manage the judging and other programs and events and are able to provide constructive feedback and encouragement to students and teachers. In addition, they secure media coverage to acknowledge and celebrate the finalists and winners and provide access to high profile members of the scientific community to be keynote speakers at the presentations. The clear benefits to each partner and the academic community are impressive.
The business informs bright young scientists about career opportunities available within BHP Billiton. It enjoys the positioning as a corporate leader and strengthens the company’s business links with CSIRO. It also broadens the business management awareness of current educational issues and gives them the opportunity to interact with professionals from the education sector. Their track record of community participation is bolstered and thus attracts third-party recognition and respect for their partnership approach.
The community organisation is able to provide students with access to science and also build relationships with the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) across Australia. The ASTA through its state/territory associations organises the competitions that provide the bulk of the entries to the national competition. The vast majority of staff time used to run these competitions is voluntary. The cross-promotion of CSIRO and other programs is facilitated in the process, in turn heightening credibility and enhancing its reputation amongst education leaders thus strengthening CSIRO’s relevance to the community. The partnership has demonstrated the CSIRO’s role in fostering emerging scientific talent.
Positive outcomes have been generated for the past 27 years with the participation of over 20,000 students to date, punctuated by significant achievements such as the development of the annual Excellence Awards. They have also raised the profile of science in the community while highlighting career opportunities for young people and showcasing scientific work.