Pearson people power
Our staff are passionate about volunteering, with many taking part in the organised reading schemes and other community programmes we offer at company level, in partnership with local organisations. This year, more than 200 Pearson UK people volunteered in schools local to our offices, reading with primary schoolchildren once a week as part of a Booktime reading scheme. In 2008/09, our Booktime volunteers gave over 4,000 hours of their time to help children enjoy reading. We held our annual Pearson Community Awards under the chairmanship of our new director for people, Robin Baliszewski, and learned of the hundreds of people across our company taking on incredible charitable endeavours in their spare time. The variety of activities included running winter clothes drives for the homeless, delivering emergency veterinary care for abandoned animals, performing as a clown in public hospitals and teaching at a community project for young refugees and migrants. We celebrated seven of those volunteers through our annual Pearson Community Awards, making a donation of $2,000 to their chosen charity and giving others certificates of Special Commendation to three other volunteer groups.
Snapshots from 2009
Pearson Community Awards
To raise internal awareness and recognition of those giving up their time to help others, we filmed the 2008 Pearson Community Award winner and will do the same for the 2009 winners in the coming months.
Pearson Australia Group staff raised over $44,000(AUD) for the Black Saturday Bushfire Appeal, which PAG then matched, resulting in over $88,000 going to help those whose lives and livelihoods had been most affected by the disaster.
Helping Read for the Record Pearson staff across North America were once again heavily involved in the success of the Read for the Record campaign, with over 1,500 people in more than 50 offices doing their bit to read with children.
Green Teams of volunteers are continuing to grow in size, structure and activity at various Pearson offices in India, the US, Australia, the UK and now South Africa. Several teams have also named specific Green Champions within their areas, tasking colleagues to help each other understand the small steps they can take to make a big difference to reducing the environmental impact of their department or building.
Room to Read
Staff at the FT chose Room to Read as the charity for this year’s seasonal appeal, featuring a series of articles online, in the newspaper and weekend magazine for almost two months. This raised £2.7m to support the charity in its work with local communities in the developing world to provide schools, libraries and educational scholarships for girls.
Staff at Pearson Education Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) staged a charity show at the end of year staff party in 2009, raising over $1,000(US) for the Hong Kong Red Cross, Oxfam Hong Kong, The Community Chest, The Salvation Army, UNICEF and World Vision.
Fast fact:
Penguin Group staff fundraising
Penguin Group UK staff raised more than £66,000 in 2009 (not including company matched funds), benefiting charitable groups for health (£21,000), social welfare (£15,000), education (£4,300), the arts and emergency relief. Penguin Group International staff raised more than $122,000 (US) in 2009 (not including company matched funds).