CSC Community Investment Strategy
CSC aims to make a positive difference in the communities in which it operates, not only through providing employment opportunities, but also by developing sustainable business-community partnerships that aim to address economic, social and environmental issues and contribute to sustainable development.
Investing in the community is key to company success in any economic climate, bringing long-term sustainable benefits to both business and communities.
When operating effectively, the company’s community investment programmes should create long-term value for the communities we engage with and demonstrate our core values of purposeful, ingenious and passionate.
Activities typically included as part of these programmes are:
- Educational Partnering, to provide business support to schools, colleges and universities. Examples include: IT Diploma support and work placement - raising aspirations of girls in mathematics, science and IT; our Apprenticeship scheme, provision of University campus teams, linking to Education Business Partnership (EBP).
- Charity & Community Partnering – including annual donations, fund raising and support capacity-building activities.Examples are our partnering agreement with the Princes Trust,working with community partners that focus on supporting children and adults with a disability and raising awareness of diversity with employees at CSC.
- Environment – building on our work in tackling the environmental impact of our business, develop community initiatives which address key environmental issues. Examples include our environmental volunteering initiatives, including working with Natural England on nature reserves to clear the ground and urban renewal projects.
- Talent and resource investment, to encourage and attract an inclusive workforce. Examples include establishing potential partnership to provide training and employment opportunities for those in the local community who may have limited access to such opportunities and supported work placements.
- In-kind support – such as time committed by employees during work hours for volunteering, or use of company facilities or resources.
- Employee programmes – such as CSC’s Helping Hands Volunteering Programme; Flex Payroll giving and CSC Charity Champions – a matched giving programme.
Our community investment programmes:
- Promote diversity and inclusion
- Support specific projects of mutual interest to the community and the company
- Be based on collaboration and participation with partners and community members
- Involve employees in the delivery of community programmes
- Incorporate human capacity building
- Measure and evaluate effectiveness
Organisational Structure
The CSC Community Investment Steering Group are responsible for determining the key community issues that are most relevant to the business and pressing to the communities that CSC works withThe group will
- Identify and articulate business risks and opportunities associated with key community issues and present findings and recommendations to the Corporate Responsibility Steering Board for approval
- Adopt a structured approach to programme selection, performance indicators and identify clear objectives from the outset of the programme.
- Establish strategic partnerships to deliver the community strategy, including community investment, charitable giving and commercial initiatives in the community.
- Control community investment budget and leverage appropriate resources. Agree UK wide communications
- Meet quarterly to monitor progress and measure and evaluate effectiveness.
Our Local Community Co-ordinators
- Work with local groups that integrate into CSC’s overall community investment strategy and make sure that activities undertaken are in line with local need
- Work with the local Education Business Partnership (EBP) to connect to local schools and further education colleges in relation to organising work experience, employee volunteering opportunities and enterprise education programmes, in line with CSC’s overall community strategy.
- Monitor results and effectiveness of initiatives and provide feedback to the CSC Community Investment Steering Group
- Empower local managers and staff across the business to get involved.
University Campus Teams
Our University Campus Teams aim to raise the profile of the CSC Graduate Programme.
The campus teams have an important role in developing and building relationships with key personnel at the university, such as the careers advisory teams, the Dean and academics, societies, and of course the all-important Student Union. The teams' activities include: offering mentoring, skills sessions, running workshops/games/competitions and networking events; providing guest lecturers on key topics, making CSC case studies/coursework available; delivering hot topic presentations and running focus groups.
Universities currently included in this programme are: Surrey; Warwick; Bath; Loughborough; Aston; Manchester; Imperial College, London; Leeds; Bristol; Sheffield; Reading; Cranfield & Oxford Brookes. Each university has its own CSC senior management sponsor.
The Prince’s Trust
We are proud to be a Patron of the Prince's Trust, a UK charity set up to help young people to overcome barriers and get their lives back on track. Through practical support including training, mentoring and financial assistance, the Prince's Trust help 14-30 year olds to realise their potential and transform their lives. CSC is part of the Technology Leadership Group
Currently CSC’s Patronage membership donation is directed towards the Business Programme, helping to start around 20 new businesses each year. Money raised by CSC’s employees goes to help young people where they need it most, be it to help keep The Princes Trust free helpline open, or supporting a Team programme. In 2008 PT helped over 44,000 at a cost of about £1000 per young person. Based on current fundraising estimates for 2009, this would mean CSC is supporting over 100 or more young people.
The majority of young people in the UK have a bright future with a strong support network of family and friends, an education and a prosperous career path ahead of them. But for many others, it is a very different story:
- More than 1.2 million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training
- By the age of 30, over a third of young men have a criminal record
- More than 5% of 15 year olds leave school each year without any qualifications.
The Prince’s Trust delivers practical help that can change young lives.
To find out how you can get involved, visit www.princes-trust.org.uk.
Helping Hands: A part of CSC UK’s national Community Investment Programme
As part of CSC’s overall corporate responsibility programme, CSC is committed to investing back into its local communities through its national Community Investment Programme – in CSC UK, this initiative is branded as “Helping Hands”, where CSC’s dedicated employees volunteer their time and talents, and work in teams to make sustainable improvements (whether social or environmental) in their local communities.
Recent activities include:
- In a team effort, 65 CSC and Royal Bank of Scotland staff, volunteered their time to provide St Catherine's Hospice in Chorley with a brand new allotment area in their grounds. CSC/RBS staff cleared the hospice grounds and re-landscaped the gardens, allowing much needed access to wheelchair users and other patients of the hospice to let them grow their own fruit and vegetables.
- Working in collaboration with Natural England, 25 CSC staff cleared 2.5 acres of heath land at the Thursley National Nature Reserve as part of CSC’s community volunteering programme. Thursley Common is one of the largest remaining fragments of Surrey heath and contains some of the finest remaining heath land in Southern England. The site is of national importance for its rare bird, reptile and invertebrate populations. Unfortunately, alien vegetation was destroying the heath land, and as a result, natural fauna and wildlife were being affected.
- In a team effort, 10 CSC staff, 6 employees of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and 5 trainee police officers renovated a rundown local Scout's Hut in Solihull, which was becoming less and less fit-for-purpose for the Scouts and other service users. Apart from painting & repairing of the Scouts Hut, the team raised contributions from local businesses to put in new flooring for the entrance to the Hut and the kitchen, as well as a new carpet for the main hall, and also fitted in a new kitchen sink. CSC also donated a new microwave and coffee mugs, as well as a table football game for the scouts. As the highlight of the event, the Mayor of Solihull personally visited the Scouts Hut project on the day and thanked the team. This has been a healthy working partnership which has been a great success, and laid the foundation for future partner initiatives in the community in which CSC operate.