Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Cineplex Odeon - Worth the ticket price at least this time.
Jess and I saw the movie Rendition
This is a note about Scotiabank Theater where we saw the movie. At the top of the escalator, we were greeted by a young man in a wheelchair employed to greet people as they entered the theater. I don't know what it was about this young man but Jess and I were really moved by the fact that he was employed as a greeter.
I think we're all prone to griping about the cost of a movie ticket these days (not to mention paying $12 to sit and be advertised to for a good 5 minutes before even the trailers begin) but here is Cineplex Odeon employing people who have to overcome significant barriers to do their jobs.
I decided to learn more about how this program came to be.
I found out that a program called Gordon House Youth SEARCh (Seeking Employment and Resources for Change) provides training and resources for "at-risk" youth. Typically, I think of "at-risk" as being drug-addicted street youth, but in speaking to Julio Bello who is the Program Manager for this initiative, he informed me that "at-risk" covers a far wider spectrum.
Julio told me that when he began speaking with Jason De Courcy, the Operations Department Director of BC for Cineplex Odeon that Jason was very enthusiastic about being able to participate in placing Julio's at-risk clients at Cineplex theaters.
The program involves 8-weeks of on-site training which gives an opportunity for the young person to gain tangible, resume-building skills and make an impression on their employer. Julio told me that most of the people who enter the on-site training become employed by the sponsoring employer.
In speaking with a Manager at the Scotiabank Theater (where we saw Rendition), I'm told that there are six employees currently employed at that one theater who have participated in this type of job-training program.
I'm a big fan of this type of program and encouraged that Cineplex understands the community benefit (both to their employees and to its customers) of supporting this type of initiative.
I asked Julio what the program needs in terms of support and computers are in great demand. He needs to find 12 computers of similar make, model, OS etc that his clients can use for developing resumes, conducting online job searches etc. At present time, there is such a hodge-podge of old equipment that it's completely unmanageable. Any local computer merchant or company upgrading their computers want to donate 12 computers?
I'll give the donor tons of profile if they do.
Next time you're seeing a movie at Cineplex and see one of these greeters, please be sure to tell them and their managers what a great job they're doing!
This is a note about Scotiabank Theater where we saw the movie. At the top of the escalator, we were greeted by a young man in a wheelchair employed to greet people as they entered the theater. I don't know what it was about this young man but Jess and I were really moved by the fact that he was employed as a greeter.
I think we're all prone to griping about the cost of a movie ticket these days (not to mention paying $12 to sit and be advertised to for a good 5 minutes before even the trailers begin) but here is Cineplex Odeon employing people who have to overcome significant barriers to do their jobs.
I decided to learn more about how this program came to be.
I found out that a program called Gordon House Youth SEARCh (Seeking Employment and Resources for Change) provides training and resources for "at-risk" youth. Typically, I think of "at-risk" as being drug-addicted street youth, but in speaking to Julio Bello who is the Program Manager for this initiative, he informed me that "at-risk" covers a far wider spectrum.
Julio told me that when he began speaking with Jason De Courcy, the Operations Department Director of BC for Cineplex Odeon that Jason was very enthusiastic about being able to participate in placing Julio's at-risk clients at Cineplex theaters.
The program involves 8-weeks of on-site training which gives an opportunity for the young person to gain tangible, resume-building skills and make an impression on their employer. Julio told me that most of the people who enter the on-site training become employed by the sponsoring employer.
In speaking with a Manager at the Scotiabank Theater (where we saw Rendition), I'm told that there are six employees currently employed at that one theater who have participated in this type of job-training program.
I'm a big fan of this type of program and encouraged that Cineplex understands the community benefit (both to their employees and to its customers) of supporting this type of initiative.
I asked Julio what the program needs in terms of support and computers are in great demand. He needs to find 12 computers of similar make, model, OS etc that his clients can use for developing resumes, conducting online job searches etc. At present time, there is such a hodge-podge of old equipment that it's completely unmanageable. Any local computer merchant or company upgrading their computers want to donate 12 computers?
I'll give the donor tons of profile if they do.
Next time you're seeing a movie at Cineplex and see one of these greeters, please be sure to tell them and their managers what a great job they're doing!
Labels: atriskyouth, cineplexodeon, community, csr, employment, gordonhouse, vancouver
Thursday, May 10, 2007
An envoy appointed and a bit on CSR
A bit groggy this morning. Woke up at 5:30am to speak at a Rotary Club meeting early this morning.
I found this story within the news section of the GiveMeaning site.
It's long over-due and it will be interesting to hear Mr. Giujin's official statements.
In other news, I found this article through my Google Reader this morning talking about different approaches to Corporate Philanthropy. Though it is specifically referring to Australian companies, it's good reading for anyone in corporate philanthropy as it raises the question that I think needs more conversation around: "Are corporate donors dealing with the real needs of the sector or are they more inclined to fund high-profile, simplistic, and sometimes ineffective, feel-good projects?" is the question asked by Niall Mulligan.
The answer should be both and at first blush, it might seem unfair to generalize but I do see this distinct dichotomy that the author flags. There is a new breed of community engagement consultants who are emphasizing "high-touch" projects that can mobilize their client's employees in ways that a three-year capacity grant to a sexual assault centre can't do. When these high-touch projects are designed more around looking and feeling good then around an impact/investment ratio, there is cause for concern.
I've been harping on this theme all week - the "feel good versus the know good" which may in fact be the perfect play on words.
On point, I'll leave you with this link from - of all places - PerezHilton.com. It's a strange day when Clay Aiken has got something poignant to say about what was missing from Idol Gives Back"
I found this story within the news section of the GiveMeaning site.
It's long over-due and it will be interesting to hear Mr. Giujin's official statements.
In other news, I found this article through my Google Reader this morning talking about different approaches to Corporate Philanthropy. Though it is specifically referring to Australian companies, it's good reading for anyone in corporate philanthropy as it raises the question that I think needs more conversation around: "Are corporate donors dealing with the real needs of the sector or are they more inclined to fund high-profile, simplistic, and sometimes ineffective, feel-good projects?" is the question asked by Niall Mulligan.
The answer should be both and at first blush, it might seem unfair to generalize but I do see this distinct dichotomy that the author flags. There is a new breed of community engagement consultants who are emphasizing "high-touch" projects that can mobilize their client's employees in ways that a three-year capacity grant to a sexual assault centre can't do. When these high-touch projects are designed more around looking and feeling good then around an impact/investment ratio, there is cause for concern.
I've been harping on this theme all week - the "feel good versus the know good" which may in fact be the perfect play on words.
On point, I'll leave you with this link from - of all places - PerezHilton.com. It's a strange day when Clay Aiken has got something poignant to say about what was missing from Idol Gives Back"
Labels: causemarketing, charity, csr, idolgivesback, marketing, media, philanthropy
Monday, January 29, 2007
When darkness comes
After returning from a trip to Ikea, we noticed our neighborhood was looking "a little dark." It took our combined powers of deduction (which apparently, even when combined, didn't add up to much) a few minutes to figure out that our neighborhood was in the midst of its second power outage in six months.
Both our phones and both our laptops were totally out of juice... It was as if the heavens were insisting (if not forcing) us to spend at least part of our weekend totally unplugged. And well, it was entirely enjoyable. Jess made music, I trudged through Easterly's "White Man's Burden (all hail us searchers!!!) which requires a bit of trudging if you're not an economics major, and we had a relatively early night.
Sunday, we went to Blood Diamond which I had intended on skipping. I didn't want to suffer through a sensationalized drama of events that I'm way too emotionally connected to (I can watch CNN for that). But with the story of the film's director angrily that I had blogged about earlier in the week, I decided to give the movie a try.
For those of you have seen it, email me personally. I have an idea that is nothing short of revolutionary that each of us can do easily, if you were affected by the movie as I was.
I hope that should Blood Diamond be recognized by the Academy on Oscar Night, that whomever accepts the award(s), uses it as a platform to challenge all of the assembled celebrity audience to stop their gratuitous promotion of the Diamond Industry. Because it's not just blood diamonds (where blood has spilt caused by civil war and arms trade financed by "conflict diamonds") but equally damning is "dirt diamonds" which is the "legitimate" exploration of diamonds using slave labor and inflicting the most hazardous, hellish conditions on the poorest of people in African countries. Your diamond might be "clean" from blood but it is often not clean from the dirt and misery inflicted upon the people forced to labor for our vanity. Worse yet, this industry exists only because of our own vanity. Are we really that unimaginative or gullible that diamonds should still be a credible, genuine expression of our love for another?
I've got a simple way to fix this, to clean it all up. Seriously. It's the simplest thing I'm proposing, something we all can easily do but I'm not going to talk about it publicly until at least a few of you first contact me privately. So email me if you agree with me in the slightest.
Labels: africa, blooddiamond, celebrity, csr, diamonds, oscars, sierraleone
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]