What is CommunityMark?
The Business in the Community, CommunityMark is a new national standard which publicly recognises business excellence in community investment.
Sky achieved the CommunityMark in 2009 because we were able to demonstrate excellence in the five key principles of community investment;
Identification of the social issues that are most relevant to our business and most pressing to the communities we work with
Work in partnership with our communities leveraging our combined expertise for mutual benefit
Plan and manage our community investment using the most appropriate resources to deliver against our targets
Inspire and engage our employees, customers and suppliers to support our community programmes
Measure and evaluate the difference that our investment has in the community and on our business. Strive for continual improvement.
As part of the Community Mark submission, each company is asked to provide examples of their key community projects during that year as evidence of the above principles. In 2008, Sky submitted the following examples, which demonstrate our focus on:
Responsibility: doing the right thing in our day-to-day business
Environment: helping to create a healthy environment
Sport: encouraging participation in sport
Arts: opening up the arts to more people
Culture Connection
This initiative is part of our commitment to opening up the Arts to more people, and has run successfully for the last three years. Sky employees are given the opportunity to take part in events and training activities such as singing, dancing and conducting workshops facilitated by Sky Arts’ partners. These exclusive events develop skills such as creativity, presentation, and leadership, and support Sky’s objective to be a great place to work. There are also ticket offers, competitions and interactive activities on the Sky campus/offices which bring the Arts to more people in different ways.
Sky Sports Living for Sport
Now in its sixth year, Sky Sports Living for Sport is a schools programme run in long term partnership with the Youth Sport Trust. The project is freely available to all secondary schools across the UK, and uses sport to engage young people aged 11-16 who are in some way disengaged at school.
We have developed a free online tool that allows teachers to register and provides access to training, project planning resources and case studies from other schools involved. There are opportunities for schools to receive sports kit for participants and a visit from one of our Olympic and other sporting champions who work with us as athlete mentors.
The program is closely monitored and has been shown to facilitate sustained improvement in the attention levels and social skills of the children involved, bringing benefits for them, their schools and the wider community.
Appetite for Action
Over 1,500 primary schools have now signed up for Appetite for Action, our environmental initiative for schools delivered in partnership with our charity partner, Global Action Plan. An interactive website guides schools through the programme with lesson plans, activity ideas, films and a sustainability challenge for schools to enter.
Developed in consultation with teachers, the Appetite for Action challenge process is proven to deliver improved environmental performance and is supported by UNEP. Resources provide strong curriculum links and support learning across the English governments Sustainable Schools gateways, as well as helping schools to reduce food costs and the amount of waste sent to landfill; and increase growing schemes, learning outside the classroom and recycling rates. The challenge aims to get the wider school community of parents, local people, MPs and local council staff involved in the action.
Project Green Sky
Alongside our aims to inspire our customers and staff to go greener, we also encourage our employees to work in partnership with their local communities, building relationships and sharing their skills.
One of our long term volunteering partnerships which helps them do this is Project Green Sky. Run in conjunction with Hounslow Education Business Partnership and local Hounslow schools, the project has seen around 100 Sky volunteers dedicate their time to a number of environmentally themed projects that have helped to educate local children on their environment impact and how to take small steps to live more sustainably.
Moving into its second year, the project team will work with 10 local schools to run events based around the governments ‘Sustainable Schools’ award with the intention of helping each school achieve this by the end of 2010.
Accessibility
We want to ensure our products and services are accessible to all our customers and viewers. Access services such as subtitling, signing and audio-description make it easier for more people to enjoy programmes on Sky. In 2007 we developed an accessible remote control which helps our visually impaired customers with its larger and bolder graphics, increased colour contrast and raised contoured buttons. It also has two alternative easy-grip features to aid customers with dexterity problems. We also provide a dedicated Accessible Customer Service team of over 100 highly trained staff, available 7 days a week. Customers can choose to contact the team by phone, text phone, fax or email.
Joining In
Our employee engagement program Joining In supports Sky people to get involved with our community projects in a number of ways.
We help Sky people to;
Volunteer their passion, creativity and skills by working with charity partners and projects that make a tangible and sustainable difference to the community.
Choose when and who they fundraise and donate to through payroll giving, helping the charities of their choice at the same time as being fully supported by our generous match funding policy.
See Joining In as a fantastic development experience and a benefit of working for Sky by clearly linking our opportunities with the Sky development framework.
We support them by;
Providing individual and team volunteering opportunities linked to community partners in Arts, Sport and Environment.
Providing 16 hours of paid volunteering time per employee, per year.
Having a generous match funding policy in place for staff fundraising or payroll giving to the charity of their choice.
For more information on all of these projects please see the attached PDF document which outlines our specific objectives and targets for each of these areas individually (pdf file size 208KB - opens in a new window)