Carphone Warehouse 2004 Annual Report Download - page 16

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The Group takes its corporate responsibility seriously. During
the year, renewed focus was brought to these activities,
with the establishment of two committees composed of
executives from across the Group. One committee oversees
all our charitable and community activities, while the other
is dedicated to wider ethical and regulatory issues. We
have appointed a Corporate and Social Responsibility
(‘CSR’) manager to coordinate strategy and actions across
both elements, and Martin Dawes has agreed to sponsor
our initiatives at Board level.
Charitable activities
We have continued our support of Macmillan Cancer Relief
and Get Connected over the last year as well as supporting
smaller charities and projects nominated by our employees.
In addition to corporate donations, funds have been raised
through sponsored employee activities, events and Give
As You Earn.
Get Connected
Get Connected is a free helpline for young people. Trained
volunteer helpline workers provide emotional support whilst
informing callers of the options available. Callers can then
get a connection to over 13,000 local or national services
for free, or have information texted to their mobile phones.
The service is available daily throughout the UK and over
1,250 young people a month currently contact the helpline.
Anyone under 25 years old can contact Get Connected,
with 66% aged between 13 and 17 years old. Get
Connected helps young people with a range of serious
emotional issues, including relationships, abuse, sexuality
and mental health.
Since September 2001 The Carphone Warehouse has
supported Get Connected by providing financial security,
a fully equipped helpline facility and office space, and
fundraising, marketing and service provision support. This
has enabled Get Connected to increase its user base by
30% since the relationship started and to increase the small
employee team by 75%. This unique relationship was
named Corporate Partnership of the Year at the UK Charity
Awards 2003, with the judges describing it as ‘a true
partnership in every sense.’
Our continued support of Get Connected also includes
employee fundraising activities and volunteering. This has
enabled Get Connected to continue to develop and expand
the range of services it provides, including the successful
launch of an e-mail service.
Employee volunteering
There is a strong culture of volunteering amongst
employees, encouraged by incentives that grant
employees additional holiday entitlements in return
for voluntary work for Get Connected.
The Carphone Warehouse actively promotes the School
Governors One Stop Shop, encouraging and facilitating
employees to become volunteer governors. School
governors have a vital role to play in helping to improve
educational standards and as schools become more
autonomous, governors with business skills can add
real value to a governing body. This year the number
of volunteers exceeded 100, making us the fourth largest
provider of school governors in the UK. This was
recognised by David Milliband, the Schools Minister,
at a reception at the House of Commons.
We plan to expand our volunteering programme
by identifying and promoting opportunities to reflect
the abilities and interests of all our employees and
offering them an opportunity for vocational and
personal development.
Mobile Cup
In 2003 the Mobile Cup was staged for the second time
and the industry golf tournament continues to prosper
and grow. The featured charity was the Make-a-Wish
Foundation, for which over £30,000 was raised,
representing the proceeds of various fundraising activities
taking place during the tournament. In 2004 the charity
selected to benefit from the event is Get Connected.
Community projects
We have been particularly keen to respond to activities
where mobile technology can be used to assist marginalised
people. We have recently supplied handsets to refugee
camps in Northern Uganda to enable communication
between camp leaders and UN bodies who provide
essential nutritional and medical support to those in
the camps who have been forced to evacuate their
homes because of the conflict in the north of their
country. Closer to home we supplied handsets to Crisis
Open Christmas to enable better coordination of activities
between Crisis employees and volunteers working in
the shelters.
Corporate Responsibility We are particularly proud of our track
record in charitable activities, which benefit
from a high level of employee involvement.