Community engagement
Community engagement is a core element of our local businesses, with campaigns, appeals and a wide range of other local activities forming part of the everyday activities of our titles. For example, this support can either be by advertising the activities of a charity or by running appeals through which our readers donate to good causes.
In addition, however, the Company also contributes directly, through cash donations, to a variety of charities.
To back this work up with further commitment from our own workforce, this year Trinity Mirror has introduced an Employee Volunteering Policy which enables all our employees to volunteer to work for a day to support a good cause in their area with their effort paid for by Trinity Mirror.
To further encourage community engagement within the Group we also have introduced an “unsung heroes” scheme to award and give internal publicity to the employee who, in the view of their peers, have contributed most to the local community over the year.
Community engagement is at the heart of our local businesses, forming part of the everyday activities of our titles. The best way to describe the sort of work undertaken is through examples of key projects across the Group.
In the North East, our specially built media centres helped another 17,000 school children improve their literacy. The two Newspapers in Education Newsrooms worked closely to produce the first of 12 regional youth publications as part of the ASPIRE campaign, which is designed to raise the aspirations of young people. NERD (North East Really Delivers) World is written and designed by young people for young people and 100,000 copies are delivered to all secondary schools across the region three times a year.
Trinity Mirror is a long-standing supporter of Business in the Community - a charitable organisation that works with businesses to improve their positive impact on society. In 2005, our North West and Coventry businesses extended their volunteering commitment by joining Liverpool Cares and Coventry Cares. These initiatives are now integrated into their training and development programmes, and have been extended across all departments.
The Sunday Mail's appeal with the Scottish Society for Autism helped raise £1.8 million to open New Struan, Scotland's first purpose-built school for children with autism.
The Chester Chronicle's 'Miles of Smiles' charity has notched up £500,000 over the past 15 years to provide holidays to Disneyland Paris for sick, disabled and underprivileged children.
The Coventry Evening Telegraph's 'Snowball Appeal' has been running for 20 years and has raised more than £20 million for local disabled children.
It was another year of achievement for The Evening Gazette's 'Tees Pride' campaign, which launched two new major initiatives - the Year of Enterprise to encourage entrepreneurial spirit in the community and the Wake Up to Your Health campaign. The Gazette's first Making A Difference Fund ball also raised thousands of pounds for local charities.
The Newcastle Evening Chronicle's 'Sunshine Fund' raised £150,000 for vital special equipment for disabled children living in the North East. Fundraising highlights included the Sunflower Ball, a Celebrity Question of Sport night and the Quayside charity run.
The Birmingham Mail teamed up with ChildLine to launch its Speak Out Stop Bullying campaign, sending out anti-bullying packs to every junior and senior school in the area.
Throughout the year, the Daily Mirror consistently championed the Make Poverty History campaign. The title also donated advertising space to the charity in the run-up to Live 8, and the G8 and World Trade Organisation summits.
Now in its eighth year, the Daily Mirror's Pride of Britain Awards gives the country's unsung heroes the recognition they deserve. In addition, most of our local titles continue to host their own community awards.
Through the Prince of Wales' Seeing Is Believing project, the Group was able to ensure the survival of the Kids Company - a South London charity for troubled children - which was on the verge of closing due to lack of funding. Our involvement in the project was singled out for a special mention by Prince Charles.
Having played a key role in their home city winning the title of European Capital of Culture 2008, the Liverpool Echo and Liverpool Daily Post became official partners to the initiative. The deal is worth around £2 million in cash, marketing support and publishing agreements, and underlines our commitment to supporting the cultural and economic life of Liverpool.
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