Resource | November 29, 2016
Ready2Go: Examples of Corporate Social Responsibility
A collection of business initiatives that benefit children and parents that have significant business involvement through corporate social responsibility efforts
How Your Company Can Help Parents Engage with Their Children
Harnessing the Power of Parents to Support Our Youngest Learners
Supporting Early Childhood: A Global Imperative, A Local Opportunity
European Business Leader Actions to Support Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)
Ready to make a business case to invest in early childhood programs? Ready2Go is a collection of successful business initiatives that have been implemented around the world through corporate social responsibility efforts. Each of these programs utilizes a company's expertise, employees, networks, time, and resources to help children and parents in their communities succeed in school, work, and in life.
Ready2Go can give business leaders ideas to support local early childhood programs, programs that focus on older youth, and programs and policies for their employees to better engage with their children and set them up for success.
In addition to our resources, there are national resources that can provide free or low-cost materials to help you disseminate information about the importance of early childhood such as Read Aloud 15 MINUTES, Vroom, and First Book.
If you would like to submit your own example of corporate responsibility, email Kalli Krumpos at kkrumpos@readynation.org
Business Examples:
Allianz Supports Families in Four Countries.
SOS Children's Villages International joined global risk expert, insurance and financial services provider Allianz in an international pilot partnership in four initial countries: Germany, Romania, India, and France. The partnership enables Allianz companies across the globe lend their support to SOS Children's Villages to provide children with individual support. Allianz is also contributing its risk management expertise, by helping to turn children's villages into safe ports of call for local communities in the event of a catastrophe, or offering cyber security trainings to young people and SOS staff.
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer (APKS) has been included in Yale Law Women's Top Ten Family Friendly Firms for many consecutive years. APKS offers employees "a flexible and comfortable work environment so that they may balance the demands of their careers with their personal interests and obligation." The firm operates an on-site child care center in their DC office and has emergency back-up care in many offices in over 300 centers with 15 free days. The firm also allows for a wide range of flexible work schedules, including part-time positions, flex-time, and compressed work schedules. The firm is dedicated to supporting new parents and provides a total of 18 weeks of paid leave for the primary caregiver of an adopted child or for a woman who gives birth to a child. Secondary caregivers for a newly adopted child or for a newborn child are eligible for six weeks of paid Secondary Caregiver Leave. This leave applies equally to attorneys and staff members, regardless of tenure with the firm.
Discovery Place Education Studio opens at Bank of America STEM Center for Career Development
In 2013, Discovery Place celebrated the opening of the new Discovery Place Education Studio at Bank of America STEM Center for Career Development in Charlotte, NC. Discovery Place Education Studio is a professional development program serving pre K-12 educators and administrators from schools, museums, science centers, zoos and aquariums. Programs will provide ongoing educator professional development in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) throughout the Southeast. Bank of America, Duke Energy, UTC Aerospace Systems and OrthoCarolina's support made the program possible.
Dr. Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG promotes Family Engagement
Dr. Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG, a German food brand, and SOS Children's Villages developed long-term local partnerships in more than 15 countries to help families create loving homes as safe spaces for children. The company has supported SOS Children's Villages' work for children in various ways, including financial support for the daily lives of families, renovating kitchens in family homes (complete with fresh-baked cookies), to publishing a collaborative cookbook through local cause-related marketing campaigns, Facebook promotions, and encouraging the strong engagement of employees.
EPIC's Employer Toolkit
The Colorado business group, Executives Partnering to Invest In Children (EPIC), created an Employer Toolkit: an online resource which provides early childhood information to employers. The Employer Toolkit is interactive and offers businesses the opportunity to review current policies and practices, and also suggests how to improve the company's family approach for employees.
EPIC's Pueblo Book Drive
The Colorado business group, Executives Partnering to Invest In Children (EPIC), Pueblo book drive was created to improve the poor ratings of school readiness of young students of Pueblo County. As part of this initiative, businesses in the community collect new and gently used books for their local children and encourage other businesses to host similar book drives.
Erie's Future Fund for Early Childhood Education
Erie's Future Fund is a partnership between local nonprofits and business leaders to provide high-quality early childhood education scholarships to low-income families within Erie County, Pennsylvania. Businesses can make donations, donate to Pre-K Educational Improvement Tax Credits, and cause-related marketing. Erie's Future Fund enables children to attend a high-quality Early Childhood Education program between the ages of 3 and 4.
Ernst & Young LLP ranked in top 10 of Working Mother Best Companies
In 2015, Ernst & Young LLP was listed by Working Mother as one of the best companies for the 19th consecutive year. EY was recognized for its inclusive workplace culture for working parents with benefits such as 14 weeks of paid parental leave, career and family transitions coaching programs, lactation consultations, and child and family care options for children, adults, and even pets.
Ernst & Young LLP join forces with PBS to improve math literacy
At EY, they know it is not enough to begin addressing barriers to higher education in high school. They recognize that if we want more low-income and minority students to attain four-year college degrees, they need to develop confidence in their problem-solving skills early. EY is working to expand access to education for underserved children across the Americas. In 2007, EY joined forces with PBS to improve math literacy in the US and beyond, including through a multimedia initiative called Cyberchase targeted for kids between 8 and 11, the age at which they tend to lose confidence in their math skills, possibly limiting their opportunities for future STEM education and jobs.
Fab Lab of Northwest Arkansas
Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce (AR) Sponsors Fab Lab to Teach Manufacturing
The Fayetteville Chamber serves as the leader and advocate for local companies to promote a strong business climate in Fayetteville and facilitate positive community interaction for continued economic development and an enhanced quality of life. In an effort to stimulate education and economic growth, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce sponsors the Northwest Arkansas Fabrication Lab (NWA Fab Lab) and acquired the space for the center. The vision of the NWA Fab Lab is to dramatically advance the interest and participation of students in the local community in science and technology careers, collectively create a new generation of entrepreneurs, inventors, and artisans; and proactively reunite education and training, art and the artisans, industrial production, and personal expression to join the nationwide efforts focusing on the resurgence of American innovation.
The NWA Fab Lab, a 501© (3) organization, was founded in August 2016 and is a part of the United States Fab Lab Network (USFLN) and a part of the Fab Foundation created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Finance Trust Bank: Mama's Corners (Uganda)
Finance Trust Bank in Uganda provides private rooms in their lobbies so that mothers can take care of their children and breastfeed. These screened-in areas, called "Mama's Corners," also have baby supplies.
First Book: Virtual Book Drive
First Book's Virtual Book Drive initiative encourages all businesses to hold book drive events or host virtual pages so that their employees can bring in books that can be donated to children at local schools and programs.
Gary Community Investments - Supporting Colorado's Children
Gary Community Investments supports solutions for Colorado's low-income children and families. They make investments in creative, quality early childhood and youth development programs with the goal of expanding children's sustainable economic opportunities and strengthening communities.
General Mills is one of the world's leading food companies whose brands include brands include Cheerios, Fiber One, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. The company was ben recognized by Working Mother magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies, a recognition they have earned for 20 consecutive years "for outstanding leadership in establishing policies, programs and corporate culture that supports working moms." Some of the highlights of their family friendly policies include its flexible work options to help employee balance responsibilities at home and at work. General Mills salaried employees have a variety of work flex options including job-share, part-time hours, telecommuting and flex schedules. Additionally, new moms can gradually ease back into their jobs after giving birth by reducing their hours for eight weeks. There's also an infant child-care center on campus so new babies can be cared for nearby.
Grupo Carso: Crecer Juntos & Crecer Jugando
Grupo Carso has launched an initiative aimed at strengthening the relationships between parents and their children as well as encouraging high-quality care, nutrition, and healthy habits. The education component, Educación Iniciál, has two parts, Crecer Juntos (Growing Together) and Crecer Jugando (Increase Play), that both implement practices to improve toddlers' affective, physical, cognitive, and social skills.
Halcom recognized as top Family Friendly Employer
Halcom was recognized as one of the 13 companies in EU member states with the best family friendly practices by the European institute European Institute for Gender Equality. Halcom has many policies that improve the business as well as family life of its employees. Parents receive a bonus when their child is born, the employees can work at home under extraordinary circumstances, and parents can get additional vacation days to encourage parents engagement with their children. Halcom firmly believes that the Family Friendly Enterprise practices result in better productivity and success rate of employees.
HARMAN Supports Music Education
HARMAN, a Samsung Company known for their connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and connected services, is dedicated to sharing the power of music to inspire individuals to realize his or her possibilities. With their long history in music innovation, HARMAN and its employees apply their expertise, time and technologies to make a positive impact in the lives of young people. Through HARMAN Inspired, they bring contemporary music education to students of all ages by partnering with leading nonprofits around the world. In the U.S., HARMAN is the lead Technology Partner for Little Kids Rock, a leader in modern music education. Together, we launched the Jam Zone – an innovative online tool providing free music instruction to kids and adults of all ages. In India, China, Germany and Hungary, HARMAN collaborates with music education organizations to enhance and modernize their youth programs. In addition, HARMAN supports key music industry staples such as NAMM and AES as well as the brilliant and impactful work of our brand ambassadors like A.R. Rahman and Linkin Park.
HARMANN Supports STEM Learning
HARMAN, a connected technology company, believes that all young people should have the opportunity to learn a robust set of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills that will help them succeed in future careers. From studies and their own experience, HARMANN knows how important early access to STEM education is for providing career pathways for our future generations. HARMAN is passionate about advancing the STEM education arena and bringing technology expertise, resources and inventive drive to young people across the globe. Through HARMAN Inspired, they support nonprofit programs and universities that deliver cutting-edge, relevant STEM skills-building experiences. In the U.S., HARMAN partners with the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College on their Formula Hybrid competition. In addition to sponsorship, HARMAN engineers provide their unique expertise in the area of smart and connected vehicles to advise teams at universities situated around the globe. HARMAN also invests in innovative programs and competitions with leaders such as the XPrize, the Wadhwani Foundation and the Society of Women Engineers.
Hawaii First Credit Union supports Babies at Work Program
Hawaii First Credit Union began their Babies at Work program in 2011. They found that employees who brought their babies to work were happier and continued to be productive, and reduced the stress of covering for employees out of the office.
H-E-B's Read 3 Program
H-E-B's Read 3 program informs parents and caregivers about the benefits and necessity of reading to their children at least three times per week. Read 3 offers the resources needed to prepare young children, especially those from low-income families, by facilitating their access to affordable books. Since 2011, H‑E‑B has donated approximately 3 million books to needy children.
Hess Environment, Health, Safety and Social Responsibility (EHS&SR) Initiative
In 2014, the Hess Environment Health, Safety and Social Responsibility (EHS&SR) initiative funded more than $42 million for education, health, and community development projects in a dozen countries. Additionally, Hess is also involved in "Succeed 2020: Supporting Schools in North Dakota," which is a a five-year, $25 million program that will prepare students for college and the workforce.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Conversations in Early Learning
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's "Conversations in Early Learning: Inform. Inspire. Act." provides early education experts and stakeholders an opportunity to give their insights on the importance of quality early childhood education for young kids.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt builds Early Reading and Early Math Skills in Pre-K
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a global learning company, created Big Day for PreK, a program kit to help ensure preschool students learn all the basic skills that will help them be successful in kindergarten and later education.The activities focus on providing students with prompts for conversations, play, and learning that integrate new vocabulary, concepts, and skills. The program also includes specific lessons in Social-Emotional Development, Oral Language and Vocabulary, Emergent Reading, Emergent Writing, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Physical Development, and Technology. A study of the effectiveness of the program indicates that children participating in Big Day for PreK programs made progress towards kindergarten readiness after one year in the program. Results from the analysis demonstrate children's growth over the school year in areas of oral language, literacy, and mathematics, and are suggest growth in children's readiness in kindergarten in multiple areas of the curriculum.
H.U.G. Strengthens Communities By Helping Students
Help Us Grow (H.U.G) is a tutoring program in Kentucky founded by Janine Broussard which helps struggling readers transition to being a proficient reader and ultimately a successful learner allowing them to achieve their full potential.
H.U.G. wants to Help Grow networks/communities utilizing a three-prong approach: mentoring students through the development of reading skills; assisting teachers with reading comprehension in struggling students; building a network of passionate people that want to help change their community through tutoring and reading at elementary schools. H.U.G collects data and measures the effectiveness and success of each student. For more information check out their website www.hugreadingprogram.org.
IBM's KidSmart Early Learning Program
IBM's KidSmart program provides opportunities to encourage an early love for learning through educational software.The KidSmart Program offers its high quality educational software to children ages 3-7, so they can learn various skills needed to succeed including: math, science, language, and social skills. Besides the educational software, the program also offers advice for early education teachers and parents of young children.
Immarsat supports World Space Week
Immarsat, a mobile satellite communications company, supports the United Nations-backed World Space Week (WSW), an annual celebration of science and technology. WSW is organized by space agencies and organizations with schools, planetaria, museums, and astronomy clubs to offer educational and outreach activities promoting career opportunities in the space industry. WSW 2016 included events produced for young audience members the story of Earth observation from space.
Intel develops Intellijoy to teach early reading and math skills
Intel developed new digital devices to offer exciting opportunities for toddlers and preschool-age children to learn through play, called Intellijoy. Intellijoy offers a series of entertaining and educational games for children to help them learn the alphabet, numbers, reading and more.
JetBlue Airlines: Soar with Reading
Through Soar with Reading, JetBlue Airlines and its partners have donated $1,750,000 worth of books to children in need. The Soar with Reading program was created to reduce the literacy gap and inspire children to increase their imagination through reading. In 2015, JetBlue placed vending machines that dispensed free books for children between the ages of 0 to 14 throughout the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Johnson & Johnson Supports Working Mothers
Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest health care products company, was recognized for family friendly workplace policies in 2016 for increasing their paid leave to 17 weeks for new parents. In addition to this increase, Johnson & Johnson also has several other signature family friendly programs including breast milk shipping for traveling moms, fertility benefits to help couples choosing that path, adoption benefits, surrogacy assistance benefits, coverage for children with special needs, and child care benefits including on-site centers at six campuses.
Jumpstart: National Early Education Organization
Jumpstart is a national early education organization whose goal is for every child in America to enter kindergarten ready to thrive. Jumpstart trains college students and community volunteers to work with preschool-age children in low-income communities. Through a research-based curriculum, participating children are able to develop the language and literacy skills they need to be prepared for kindergarten.
KPMG's Family for Literacy
KPMG's Family for Literacy program engages its employees, interns, partners, and families and encourages them to volunteer to read to children, help organize book drives, create fundraising events, donate books to schools, and deliver books to underserved children across the U.S.Global expansion has begun with programs started in India, Mexico, UK and South Africa.
Lockheed Martin Provides STEM Learning to Build Workforce Pipeline
Advancing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is a critical focus for Lockheed Martin. They are focused on ensuring that students get an early start in STEM to ensure that they have enough highly trained, highly capable candidates with technical skills. Lockheed Martin works to involve many players in STEM education, including industry leaders, educators, policy makers and families. Lockheed Martin has an employee population that includes 49,000 engineers, scientists and IT professionals, and is committed to working with their current employees to develop programs that educate and inspire students to be tomorrow's scientists, engineers and mathematicians. To help address the skills gap of qualified workers and to strengthen the workforce pipeline of STEM candidates, Lockheed Martin provides generous funding to STEM education activities for children and youth from the early years through college. Notably, one of the many programs, Generation Beyond, provides parents and families resources and lesson plans to engage in STEM learning at home allowing even early learners to be involved.
Macy's 2nd Mondays Program
Macy's 2nd Mondays program operates on the second Monday of each month during which toddlers—children ages five and under, along with their parents—receive free admission to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. The youngsters enjoy programs and activities—including storytelling, live entertainment, and dozens of hands-on activities related to some of the museum's most memorable artifacts (trains, dollhouses, historic games)—designed especially for preschool age children as a way for moms to help their toddlers build an interest in American history.
Macy's Be Book Smart Campaign
Macy's initiated the Be Book Smart campaign in their stores to highlight the importance of providing children with the opportunity to choose the books they want to read. As part of the campaign, Macy's stores offer their customers coupon incentives to donate either in person or online to provide free books and literacy resources to children and their families in underserved communities across the U.S.
Marriott International organizes World of Opportunity
Marriott International organized its hotels across continental Europe to fundraise, facilitate in-kind donations, and volunteer with SOS Children's Villages in 20 European countries. With the World of Opportunity initiative, Marriott-branded hotels throughout Europe help support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to reach their full potential by providing employment skills training and vocational opportunities.
Maryland Scholars
Conducted by the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education in partnership with the employers, the State Superintendent, and local superintendents
It is needed! Current graduation requirements are not rigorous enough to prepare students academically for success in college and work. Students who do not complete math through Algebra 2 are destined for remedial college courses or low-wage jobs. Maryland Scholars continues to impact rigorous course completion and college/career readiness both in terms of inspiring student action and influencing policy changes.
Whether a student wants to go to college or get a job after graduation, getting the best possible foundation in high school is essential. Even if students don't know what they want to do after high school, taking the right courses now will allow them to follow any path they choose later. Students who complete the Maryland Scholar criteria are better positioned to qualify for college, grants, scholarships, and good jobs with benefits.
It works! In 2013, nearly 54% of Maryland graduates met the Maryland Scholars criteria, up from 36% in 2007.
Mattel & Mattel Children's Foundation Partnership with Save the Children
Mattel and the Mattel Children's Foundation have partnered with Save the Children to donate to their international disaster relief and emergency response preparedness. Mattel's grant to Save the Children supports three activities: disaster risk reduction (e.g. preparedness workshops for children and emergency planners, shelter managers, and child care providers), prepositioning relief materials (e.g. shelter materials, blankets, hygiene and household items, education kits, and children's toys), and disaster response planning (e.g. trainings for first-responders and provision of satellite phones, solar chargers, and other equipment necessary to plan and prepare for disasters).
Merage HELP Program
The Merage HELP Program provides volunteers to help update, maintain, and clean child care facilities so that more time and money can be spent on educating and taking care of the children.
Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE)
The Merck Institute for Science Education is working for four public school districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to improve the quality of science education from kindergarten through eighth grade. With a 10-year funding commitment, the program activities will focus on professional development, training of teachers, improving teachers' education, and improving curricula and instructional materials.
Microsoft Supports Parents and Families
Microsoft has a Parents Employee Resource Group (ERG) that provides resources, shares experiences and information, and is a voice of support for all types of families at Microsoft. Their goal is to create awareness and provide services and support that enable Microsoft members to be good parents and good corporate citizens. As a community the ERG also serves as a resource to Microsoft product groups, providing input and feedback from a parent/family perspective. The ERG also hosts several family centered events including the Microsoft Adoption Fair, Bring Your Kids to Work Day, and the Washington State Fathers Network (WSFN) State Conference. Microsoft's other parenting supports include subsidized child care and help finding backup child care if your nanny falls through.
MinneMinds Coalition to increase Quality for Early Care and Education
The MinneMinds Coalition is a statewide campaign to increase public funding for quality early child care and education programs in Minnesota. The mission is to advocate for better early learning policies that allow underprivileged children the opportunity to attend high quality early learning programs to be better prepared for kindergarten.
National Grid sponsors STEM Pre-K Teaching Guide
Working with the Boston Children's Museum and WGBH, National Grid created a curriculum to assist preschool educators in focusing and refining the naturally curious behaviors of three to five year olds in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The curriculum guide book provides preschool educators with activities and tools to expand kids' science learning and to lead them toward discovery through a STEM curriculum.
PASR: Supporting Minnesota's Quality Rating System
Supporting Minnesota's Quality Rating System is an initiative of Parent Aware for School Readiness (PAST) to help the state develop stronger public school programs for early childhood education. Parent Aware created a 1-to-4 star rating system to facilitate parents' search for high-quality childcare and early learning programs.
Patagonia has long been a leader in supporting working parents. In 1983, Patagonia first opened its onsite child care center at its Ventura, CA headquarters. Today, Patagonia offers onsite child care in Ventura as well as its Reno, NV customer service and distribution center and child care stipends for employees working where onsite child care isn't offered. Additionally, the company has family friendly policies such as flexible schedules, 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and 12 weeks of fully paid paternity leave and leave for adoptive mothers, and 12 weeks of fully paid family medical leave. At Patagonia, 100% of new mothers return to work after maternity leave. Patagonia offers $10,000 in adoption assistance, and travel support for working moms to be able to bring a caregiver with them when they travel for work. In 2015, President Obama honored Patagonia's President and CEO, Rose Marcario as a White House Champion of Change for her support of working families through policies such as paid leave and onsite child-care services, among others.
Pitney Bowes, Share the Message: READ!
Share the Message: READ! by Pitney Bowes was launched as a company volunteer effort so that employees could engage and read with children and students. Pitney Bowes has been an ongoing supporter of decreasing the academic achievement gap through enhanced literacy and education.
Pitney Bowes Supports a Love of Learning
Pitney Bowes, a provider of eCommerce solutions, believes that "every child deserves the chance to grow into a healthy, productive adult." To help achieve that goal, they support education for at-risk students in communities where the company has a presence. They serve young children through programs that encourage parent engagement, stimulate development of language, literacy and early math skills, and foster a true love of learning. Pitney Bowes serves children from pre-kindergarten through middle school with year-round enrichment programs in school-based and after-school programs. Several of their programs include specific early math instruction including Success for All, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, MIND Research Institute, and Horizons National Student Enrichment Program.
PNC Grow Up Great®
Through PNC Grow Up Great®, a bilingual initiative in early childhood education, PNC emphasizes how critical young children's learning is to their long-term achievement. PNC deploys grants, volunteerism, awareness and advocacy to create an environment where young children can succeed in school and life. To date, the initiative has impacted more than 2.6 million children.
PPL Corporation Funds STEM-focused Pre-K
PPL Corporation Funds for STEM-focused Pre-K is an initiative to get all girls and boys access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education programs by 2030. Through funding by PPL, numerous scholarships and subsidies have been provided to students from low-income families to attend programs.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Supports Parents and Parents-to-be
PricewaterhouseCoopers supports parents and individuals planning a family. They offer parental leave, adoption financial reimbursement, family planning consultations, and additional supports. For example, in PwC's Mentor Moms program, new moms are paired up with veteran moms at the firm. Women dealing with the transition to motherhood receive guidance, coping tips, and a sympathetic ear from an employee who has also experienced handling work and parenting. PwC's other parenting supports include subsidized backup child care and an optional program that helps parents taking parental leave to keep in touch with former colleagues and allows them to attend some firm trainings and events to stay sharp.
Pride Stations & Stores
Pride Stations & Stores distribute Read! materials including flyers and bookmarks to customers to encourage employees to engage with customers with young children to encourage them to read with their children. Pride Company also sponsors a monthly photo competition run by Read! in which parents are asked to submit photos of themselves reading with their children. There is a monthly drawing and the winner is awarded a $50 gift card to Pride stores.
Project Impact is a community initiative to provide additional operating funds to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools to address critical student achievement gaps and improve third-grade reading and math proficiency scores. Businesses including BB&T, Reynolds American, Flow Automotive, and Kaplan Early Learning Company helped to found the initiative and have provided significant funding. Using proven strategies, Project Impact funds pre-kindergarten expansion, extended learning options, expanded staff development, and instructional support. Focus areas include intensive early intervention among at-risk groups and lower-performing schools. Project Impact will evaluate the programs it funds over six years to enable designated local public schools to implement programs and measure their effectiveness.
Proulx Oil & Propane supports early STEM learning
Proulx Oil & Propane partnered with New Hampshire Public TV (NHPTV) and STEM from the START to promote early STEM learning. STEM from the START is a new curriculum that engages Pre-K through 2nd grade students in STEM by blending animated adventures with teacher-guided activities. Designed with the help of lead thinkers in STEM education and distributed at no cost via the Internet, STEM from the START nurtures and focuses students' natural curiosity and love of exploration while laying the groundwork for ongoing STEM success.
PSFU: Early Steps Strong Foundation
The Early Steps Program is an initiative of Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU). Early Steps informs business leaders why it's important to support and invest in young children, and encourages business leaders and the local and national government to invest in early childhood development supports.
PTC Works to Promote STEM Education
PTC, a global technology provider, understands that the future and sustained success for their 27,000 customers depends upon future generations of scientists and engineers. They know that obtaining access to a modern product development education designed around real-world challenges is vital to that success. To help achieve that goal, PTC committed to supporting individuals and institutions that inspire and support our next generation of engineers. PTC's K-12 program focuses on the product development process from which students learn about how products are made, from early concept design to service in the field. For more than 15 years, our team of engineers and educators has been working with schools to enhance the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
PVH announces partnership with Save the Children
Since 2014, PVH has partnered with Save the Children and has contributed $5 million to early education programs. PVH aims to improve the access to and quality of early childhood education programs for children from birth to age five around the world.
Qualcomm Builds Students' STEM Skills with FIRST
Qualcomm, a mobile technology company, deeply engaged in providing students with K-12 STEM education and inspiring greater diversity in the STEM workforce. As a FIRST® Strategic Partner, Qualcomm provides a wide range of support that includes technology, thousands of volunteer hours from employees, as well as substantial philanthropic contributions of several million dollars. During 10 years of collaboration, Qualcomm's support has grown with FIRST. Today, it includes integration across all four programs that inspire tens of thousands of students each year, helping to prepare them for the job market. Qualcomm has also aided in FIRST global expansion, helped to implement a new game-changing control system for FIRST® Tech Challenge, anchored the FIRST® Championship for three years in a row, and more. Qualcomm is helping to build a diverse STEM workforce — for its own future, and that of the world — and thinks FIRST plays a critical role in offering students exposure to real-world careers. With its support of FIRST, Qualcomm is doing its part to bring innovation, collaboration, and STEM education to students around the globe.
Rachel Zoe Inc.
When stylist and designer Rachel Zoe found out five of her employees were to become mothers in the same year, she built a child care facility next door to allow mothers returning from maternity leave to maximize time with their children. Zoe wrote, "Seeing how motivated and committed the mothers on my team were after returning from maternity leave and being able to set up their babies in the nursery has only solidified my belief that every company should consider this option. Sure it required us to make additional investments—the physical space, the insurance required to protect everyone, the furnishings—but what we are getting in return is invaluable; the working mothers at our company can improve and grow our business without having to sacrifice spending precious time with their babies at such a crucial stage in their mother-child relationships."
Read Aloud 15 MINUTES Read Aloud 15 MINUTES is a decade-long national campaign that highlights the importance of reading aloud to children for at least 15 minutes every day. The Read Aloud 15 MINUTES organization aims at making this routine a parenting standard for the United States, so that more children in our nation will be prepared when they start kindergarten.
Ready for School Community Partnership
Ready for School is a community partnership between schools in Holland, Zeeland, and Hamilton, Michigan, that utilizes a common standard of readiness, known as DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), to measure a child's preparedness for kindergarten. The initiative engages business leaders to advocate for early childhood investments with hopes to increase both the capacity and quality of early childhood education.
Southwest Human Development's Raising A Reader Program
Southwest Human Development's Raising A Reader is an eight-week program created to emphasize the importance of early literacy skills and to teach parents how to use books to strengthen their relationship with their kids. During the program parents attend various informational workshops on early literacy and can bring home new sets of books to share with their children every week.
Tap to Togetherness
Tap To Togetherness is a program from the Kansas State Tap Dance Ensemble is partnering with Parents as Teachers to bring families a series of tap dance classes to encourage parental engagement with their children. The classes are open to any family in Parents as Teachers who has a child over 12 months of age with the goal of increasing self esteem, increasing positive discipline, assessing and improving body coordination, identify sensory needs, examine and enhance family relationships.
Target's $1 Billion Support for Communities & Education
Between 2010 and 2015, Target donated $1 billion to provide books, school supplies, food, field trips and other items and programs to students and schools across the U.S. and around the world. Among other projects, Target stores provide education grants to local K-12 schools to support educational field trips, early childhood reading programs and participation in the arts.
Text4Baby
Text4Baby is an innovative application which offers parents the opportunity to receive free personalized text messages multiple times per week starting during pregnancy until their baby's first birthday. The information provided includes advice on everything from safe sleep practices, infant feeding, pregnancy health, health insurance, doctor visits, and other important lessons for parents with young children.
The Coin Laundry Association - Wash Time is Talk Time: Early Literacy Promotion in Laundromats
The Coin Laundry Association's (CLA) Wash Time is Talk Time: Early Literacy Promotion in Laundromats initiative provides parents from low income communities across the U.S. with encouraging information and resources so that they can engage with their children while they are at the laundromats. The goal is to facilitate opportunities for young children to talk, read, and/or sing with their parents/families to productively use the time they spend together—even while doing laundry.
The Opportunity Project's Early Learning Centers
The Opportunity Project Early Learning Centers (TOPELC) encourage businesses to help fund TOPELC schools that offer high-quality early childhood education programs to low-income families.
TOMODACHI Toshiba Science & Technology Leadership Academy
The TOMODACHI Toshiba Science & Technology Leadership Academy is an annual one-week, cross-cultural Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) exchange and leadership program for high school students and teachers from Japan and the U.S. to develop a disaster-resilient, smart community of the future. With counsel from Toshiba engineers and a visit to the Toshiba Science Museum and the Smart Community building, the students and teachers work in teams to develop proposed solutions to these problems using learning experiences that are central to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the engineering design process.
Toyota Born Learning Academy
Toyota's Born Learning Academy offers workshop sessions at more than 70 elementary schools across the state of Kentucky so that parents from local communities can get the information they need to help their children prosper in kindergarten and with future studies.
Universal Technical Resource Services, Inc. Supports EIRC
UTRS supports the Educational Information & Resource Center (EIRC), a nonprofit agency that specializes in education-related programs and services for parents, schools, communities and nonprofit organizations. EIRC reaches more than 36 states and 20 foreign countries to offer resources ranging from gifted and special education services to creative problem-solving, and from nationally validated programs in science and mathematics to early childhood education and child assault prevention.
Vanguard Capital for Kids
Vanguard's Capital for Kids program encourages their employees and members to make smart investments by donating to the United Way Community Way Impact.
Velcro Companies
Velcro Companies engages in many efforts to promote literacy, early childhood and youth education and address poverty. For example, they support the Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF), which provides education, food, family support and community development programs in the heart of Cambodia's most impoverished areas. Together, Velcro Companies and CCF are constructing a state-of-the-art school, the Neeson Cripps Academy, where children will receive high-quality education focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) topics. It will also provide much-needed teacher training, giving adults viable careers and opportunities. In New England, where the company has a major presence, they have partnered with major sports organizations to generate enthusiasm for reading and literacy and championed STEM programs at all levels of education. In addition to capital donations, sponsorships and in-kind contributions at the corporate level, our employees share their time and energy to make our social responsibility efforts successful.
Vodafone Group institutes Global Maternity Leave Policy
The Vodafone Group changed its maternity leave policy for all of their global offices/companies to help mothers across the world transition back into their jobs. Vodafone now offers at least 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, and allows mothers the flexibility to work only 30 hours while earning full-time pay during the first six months after returning from maternity leave.
WellStar Health System provides Concierge Services
WellStar Health System in Marietta, GA, implemented an on-site concierge service provided by Best Upon Request, a national organization, to help reduce the demands and stress of everyday life. The more than 11,000 employees of WellStar may contact the concierges to request errand running, car services, grocery shopping, event planning, information research and more. The service is meant to enhance employees' satisfaction and allow them to better focus at work.
Wolf Trap's Early Childhood STEM Learning Through the Arts
Wolf Trap's Early Childhood STEM Learning Through the Arts program provides teachers and educators, especially those in economically disadvantaged areas, with resources to help them engage their students through music, drama, and dance to support the STEM curriculum.
Zillow Increases Paid Parental Leave
Zillow, the Seattle-based real estate marketplace, increased their company policy for maternal paid leave to 16 weeks. Zillow also offers eight weeks of paid leave to all new parents. The company also offers all new parents a $1,000 Amazon gift card to help offset the costs of raising children.
Culture of Health