We believe offering employees the chance to volunteer is a simple and effective way to contribute to improving the communities in which ArcelorMittal operates
At ArcelorMittal we believe that volunteer work is a significant factor in responsible citizenship, strengthening our employees’ commitment to and relationship with the communities they work in. To volunteer is a simple and effective way to make our own contribution towards “transforming tomorrow”.
ArcelorMittal’s global volunteer programme is coordinated by the ArcelorMittal Foundation, which sets the groundwork for our volunteering projects all over the world. The programme provides employees with opportunities to use their talents to contribute to improving lives in their local communities and further afield, in addition to training and qualification tools for volunteer activities.
Small actions, big results
Three of the ways in which our employees can contribute to “transforming tomorrow” are through our international volunteer work day, solidarity holidays and the mini-grants.
ArcelorMittal’s annual international volunteer work day is run alongside the United Nations’ International Volunteer Day, which promotes organisations’ contributions to development at local, national and international levels. On this day, employees from all parts of the company donate their time to social, cultural or environmental projects in their local communities.
In 2011 a total of 30,600 hours were spent volunteering, participating in more than 200 community projects during the ArcelorMittal Foundation’s fourth international volunteer work day. These projects included refurbishing local schools, visiting sick children in hospital and working in a soup kitchen. We also encourage employees to carry out volunteer work throughout the year, aligned with their skills, personal interests and priorities.
For more adventurous employees, our solidarity holidays offer an opportunity to engage with local communities in countries in which ArcelorMittal has operations and where the Foundation runs a project, while experiencing a new country and culture alongside colleagues from all over the world. This initiative was launched in 2010 and to date we have built and repaired houses, schools or parks in disadvantaged communities in Argentina, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Haiti, Macedonia, Mexico, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago. We have also helped out children’s camps in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Ukraine; worked in mobile health camps in Liberia and Senegal; planted 6,500 tree saplings in India. In Spain, a team of volunteers cycled 800 kilometers on a tandem bike with a blind cyclist, to raise awareness of retinal diseases and to encourage people to have regular eye checkups.
Mini-grants are another innovative way that employees can support their local communities. They allow employees to apply for small financial grants from the ArcelorMittal Foundation to support projects in which they are involved. The concept of mini-grants originated at our operations in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg, and has since been launched globally to our employees, underlining our commitment to spreading innovation and best practices throughout the company.