Civil society organizations benefit from corporate knowledge
Samen voor Eindhoven is growing strongly: The number of employees in the Brainport region volunteering through Together for Eindhoven is growing by 30% a year. In 2019, we welcomed the ten thousandth volunteer. We are proud that companies let employees do corporate volunteering - 'in the boss's time' - for one or two days. But also that employees are deployed long-term. Highlighted in the Eindhovens Dagblad a particularly nice match that arose during the 9-month Community Coaching program, where Vrijwillige Hulpdienst Eindhoven benefited from help from cleaning company ICS.
Community coaching
The solution came through Community Coaching of Together for Eindhoven. In this project - now for the third year in a row - ten people from the business community are paired for nine months with ten 'charities' in the Brainport region, to solve a specific issue through coaching and guidance. This is how Judith van de Belt came into contact with Bart van der Sluijs, director of the cleaning company ICS Group. ,,We had a click," says Van der Sluijs. ,,And I knew: that question they were sitting on, I could do something with that." His company uses the latest technology to deploy cleaners as efficiently as possible. He asked ICS project manager Romy Waterman - a specialist in work processes - to free up time for the VHE. And he put the VHE in touch with someone in his network, Jan Schenk of Power-S. This cooperative includes companies with knowledge of building ICT systems. And its approach is exactly what the VHE needed.
Building a bridge between business and society
According to Esther Hofstede, things seem to be going well in Eindhoven. The Brainport region shows fine growth figures and is the smartest region in the world. Yet there are children growing up in poverty in this city. That gap, I cycle through it daily when I cross the bridge over the Dommel River from the Bennekel and arrive at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven. The Bennekel and the High Tech Campus, those are really two worlds." Esther wrote an opinion piece about it in the ED.
In early February, she was one of the guests at the annual meeting on poverty reduction, organized by the Minima Eindhoven Foundation. ,,A lot of people attended. But what struck me: there were no companies among them, no entrepreneurs. So building a bridge between businesses and society remains very necessary."