Guest Commentator: Matthew Stitt, Board Member, Greater Philadelphia YMCA @philaymca
Why is it important for businesses to meet communities where they are when it comes to corporate social responsibility?
When the doors shut, all activities stop, and everyone goes home… how do organizations stay true to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals? What’s more, how do they transition back to normal? Over the past 15 months or so, that’s a question we’ve all wrestled with. At the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, we’ve been fortunate enough to deal with the question ourselves and help other organizations find their answers.
The fact is that we meet our communities where they are every day. At the Y, being a community-based, on-the-ground movement is in our DNA. Reimagining how we meet our communities in an age of isolation, however, has reinforced some important truths.
Keep Your Focus
Mission is everything. You know you’ve got it right when it clarifies your intent, while leaving you the freedom to adapt to any situation.
Our mission of “connecting people to healthier lives” gave us the clarity to partner with local hospitals at the beginning of COVID-19 to provide essential worker childcare. Mission drove us to reimagine how we cared for our senior members, taking them into the world of live online workouts. It spurred us to develop Y Student Support Centers so that families got crucial help during a year of virtual learning. And it will drive us this summer as we expand the Playstreets program with the City.
Fill the Gaps
One of the swiftest, and most-impactful ways, CSR can impact a community is in making needed connections happen.
Online learning has proven especially challenging in some of our communities, with technology access proving itself as a particular hurdle. In partnering with Best Buy and The Clubhouse Network on a Teen Tech Center at our Columbia North YMCA, we’re providing crucial resources where they’re needed most.
Let “Temporary Fixes” Innovate Your Long Haul
They say necessity is the mother of invention. In responding to extraordinary circumstances, be open to “temporary solutions” that should become “standard practice.”
It’s happened to all of us: An urgent need forces us to embrace a path forward that we’d previously avoided. And in that moment, we discover efficiencies/advantages/impacts we’d been missing. Once the challenge has passed, it’s crucial to reimagine your operations to retain the right practices and make your path forward more impactful. For the Y, it’s been our expansion into digital touchpoints. And we look forward to where it takes us next.
Meeting our communities where they are is the very first challenge of CSR. It is the starting point of everything else we do. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that we can meet that community anywhere, even when it has to shut itself away. And we take comfort in that.
The Greater Philadelphia YMCA is a member of the Chamber’s Roadmap for Growth Action Team, a group 110+ Chamber members and partners united to engage with a broad range of civic and neighborhood organizations in the development and execution of policies and initiatives that enhance the economy, encourage civic engagement, and support an efficient and impactful government in order to lift and improve Philadelphia’s economic and civic life.
