community programmes
We've focused our business on helping people of all ages get
on in their lives and we've focused our community support
around organisations that help them do that too.
In 2002, we invested some £2.8m in community programmes.
That investment is centred on two things. We want to support
our employees who are active in their communities, providing
them with time, money and products that encourage and extend
their commitment. And we want to forge long-term
partnerships with a small number of not-for-profit
organisations that make a sustainable difference to
education, teachers and literacy.
A jump-start for pre-schoolers:
In 2001 we made a $2.5m, three-year commitment to Jumpstart,
a US non-profit organisation. Jumpstart recruits and trains
college students to work one-to-one with disadvantaged
pre-school children. The process can measurably improve the
children's performance, and often inspires the college
students to take up careers as pre-school teachers. This
year, the Pearson Teacher Fellowship is sponsoring 28
Jumpstart alumni to become full-time early education
teachers. Pearson Teacher Fellows receive stipends, on-going
training, plus individual mentoring from our employees to
support them in the first two years of their teaching
careers. Our US businesses are using their expertise and
resources creatively to further assist the Jumpstart
programme with books, technology and staff time. We plan to
launch a flagship UK community programme during 2003.
More information at www.jstart.org
Employee volunteering:
We encourage employees to offer their services as volunteers
- to read to children in local primary schools, paint
classrooms or tidy up playgrounds.
We run a matching scheme for employee fundraising so that
they can double the money they raise for their chosen
organisations. Our payroll-giving schemes make it easier for
employees to make tax-free donations to their favourite
causes.
Spreading the word:
We partner with various organisations which promote literacy
and increase access to books. Our children?s publisher
Puffin works with Bookstart in the UK, which provides every
baby in the country with a pack of free books and learning
materials for parents. In the US, Penguin has partnered with
Literacy Partners, which focuses on adult and family
literacy programmes.
We also work closely with Book Aid International, which
helps schools and libraries in the developing world to make
books and educational materials available where they are
most needed.
|
