Project Brief
We at Rogers Communication, Inc. are committed towards corporate social responsibility in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Greater Vancouver (GV). We are Canada’s leading telecom services provider. Most of our valuable customers come from these two regions, making it all the more important for us to make a difference in the lives of people in these communities.
As most of our new customers are youth going for their first mobile device, their long-term faith in our services is critical to the success of our business. Therefore, under out corporate social responsibility, we plan to invest where it brings value and long term benefits to this section of the society. We at Rogers are particularly passionate about road accidents related to drunken driving. As a result, we are planning to partner with Mothers against Drunken Driving (MADD).
Project Description
According to U.S.’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, car accidents are a leading cause of death among teenagers. And, among these deaths almost a quarter of them involve an underage drinking driver. Our engagement with MADD has made us aware that the situation is similar in urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver. Youths have the highest rate of traffic accident of all age group, and they also comprise the highest death rate per kilometer among those below 75 years of age. Further, drugs are a factor in 55% of case involving a death related to driving in 16 to 25 year olds. As many would be aware that alcohol affects judgement, ability to focus, hand-eye coordination, ability to recognize potentially dangerous road situation, and ability to see and think clearly. Further, these young novice drivers are usually deficient in drinking and driving experience.
As MADD is already well established in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Greater Vancouver, we propose to work with them in Southern Ontario and Lower Mainland, BC.
Project Mission
Our mission is to increase awareness among the youth of this age group about the issue. We believe that this is the best away forward as no amount of policing is going to help unless the target population itself realizes the hazards of drinking driving. We believe that our partnership with MADD will help provide a lot of valuable background and expertise. At the same time, we will use our network of stores and channel partners in Southern Ontario and Lower Mainland, BC as nodal centers of the activity. Our staff and volunteers, based in these offices, will contact various school, colleges, and universities, and their student groups. Along with MADD, we are considering two kinds of activities – special information sessions and information desks at events.
Project Activities
With regards to special information sessions, we will be contact various schools, colleges, and university. The idea is to hold dedicated information sessions, which would be half hour to an hour long; these sessions will not only include a guest lecture, PowerPoint presentation, but also interactive session towards the end. Here Rogers will be the major sponsor, and bear all costs. We will be inviting guest speaker from MADD or some other institution. Similarly, we will be setting up information desk, to distribute brochure, at events that are typically popular with youth. In another such innovative step, we will be setting up such desks at beer and liquor stores.
For a list of school and colleges we will be contacting the district school boards of the region. From the list we will be contacting the principal, so as to seek their consent. Once done, we will set up information session on mutually agreed on date. At the end of the session, we will be conducting a short survey, which we will be for our program evaluation. For sessions at the universities, we will be contacting the student affairs office. Along with the survey, we will be doing the head count of attendees to gauge response. This initiative will be monitored on all occasion as metrics of program evaluation.
We will be contacting MADD for guest speakers for the information session. We will seek experts from local college and universities. The information desks at various events and beer and liquors stores will be manned by our staff that are volunteer their time towards the CSR.
Expected Results
We will gauge the success of the initiative by the responses by the students. In the case of the information session, we will gauge the success by the head count. Also, we will take into account the percentage of attendees who chose to fill out a survey form. Similarly, for information desks, we will take into consideration the number of survey forms submitted.
However, we should mention before-hand like any other projects; this too has its share of risks. Risk include declined request by principals to host the event. For the information desks at the events, there is a risk that we not are able to get space, or the event might get cancelled. Although such projects don’t require a lot of money, but our budget for CSR is limited.
Measurement of Project Success
The success of the initiative will also depend on the response to survey questions. For this purpose, we will enroll volunteers from our business intelligence department. These results will be statistically analyzed over time to arrive at better conclusions. Further, to take decisions on these results, we will be banking on our CSR team. After all, it is our CSR team, which is coordinating whole initiative in partnership with MADD.
Stakeholder
Our major stakeholder is MADD. They have the knowledge and expertise to spread awareness. So, they would be an important part of the organization committee as they will be the brain behind the initiative. Whereas, ourselves, that is Rogers Communication will be the chief funder of the initiative. However, we would be receptive if others like to contribute. We will also provide the volunteers to organize the events. These volunteers will be responsible for contacting schools, universities, and event managers. They will also play a lead role at the day of the event, like conducting a survey and facilitating question hour session. The survey will also be analyzed by our business intelligence department and the result sent to the organizing committee.
Other minor stakeholders include our independent dealers and channel partners who will be providing space for the information desk. Also, schools and universities will be our major stakeholders as they will give us permission to hold a session at their premises. Ours will be a long-term relationship with them as we will be approaching them every year for sustained effort to promote our cause. Further, we will not be restricting our effort towards these stakeholders only. There would be an occasion where we will have to source our guest speaker from elsewhere. In that case we will be maintaining long-term relations with them.
Time Plan
The major milestone will be: creation of organizing committee, creation of project plan, formation of teams for specific objectives, sending out communications for stakeholders, finalizing dates of events, holding events, analysis of survey, and report sent to the organizing committee.
As all events will not be at the same time, and will be round the year, the organizing committee will function throughout the year. For a typical event, say for the information session at a university, a project plan specific to that event will be created. A team of volunteers will typically take one month to seek permission. Once granted, they will take less than one week to finalize dates and book rooms. Once done, they will send out invitation by universities central email system and also via social media. On the day of the event, the volunteers will be completing their task within that day. They will collect survey forms and hand it over to the business intelligence department within a day or two. They will take a few days to analyze and send the report over to the organizing committee.
Budget
We have kept an annual budget of $400,000. These funds will primarily be used for booking conference rooms, promotional material, any fee for a guest speaker, transportation and accommodation cost to the venues. Also, we will have to spend for information desks at events.
References
MADD. Youth Services - Statistics & Links. n.d. Web. 27 05 2014. <http://www.madd.ca/madd2/en/services/youth_services_statistics.html>.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts 2011: Young Drivers. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2012. <http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811744.pdf>.
