Our community involvement has made a very real and profound difference to our neighbourhoods. Our focus is on ‘realising potential’ through supporting young people and creating environments within which they can flourish.
We’ve worked on all sorts of projects. Some are large that attract a lot of attention, and many more that are simply carried out at a local level. We are part of the local community – and it’s this that makes us jump out of planes, bake cakes until 4am, run 10km or simply help a favourite customer carry their shopping home.
Croydon - National Literacy Trust
Yetin Patel is the Store Manager at Croydon Starbucks and a veteran volunteer with the NLT. "I love the transformation the kids show from being really unsure around books to being really confident in talking about their ideas by the end of the third session. I didn't have the opportunity to read books when I was a kid, and I've seen the different it makes to my children when we encourage them. I think it is a phenomenal programme and it's fantastic that Starbucks is involved in it."
Nottingham - Prince's Trust
We often have young people from The Prince's Trust join our stores for a work placement. This gives them vital work experience and helps to boost their confidence. And as The Fire Service also does work with The Trust, we teamed up with them when H.R.H Prince Charles visited one of the Fire Brigade teams in Nottingham and served up a royal brew.
Soho Parish School - London
We have an ongoing relationship with Soho Parish School to create a better, brighter school for children who live in an area that isn't particularly renowned for being child-friendly. Sometimes this means we're helping out by cleaning out an area of the garden - or sometimes we get involved in painting parties. But as we're in it for the long-term we're always asking what more we can do to help.
Sensory Garden Sheffield - The Children's Hospital Charity
Sometimes people need a helping hand. And sometimes they need a lot more than that. Our task was to raise £20,000 to build a sensory garden to treat children with all sorts of neurological problems. As part of their community, we're proud to say we really made a difference.
Irish Youth Foundation
The team from the Irish Youth Foundation challenged the youngsters to think about how to develop all areas of an idea until it is pitch ready, and Ireland's very own Apprentice Guru Bill Cullen was on hand to offer insights and encouragement. The teams will formally pitch their ideas to an independent panel in August and Starbucks customers will vote in their local store to determine the outright winner.
We have three strands to our community programmes:
- National partnerships with the Prince's Trust and the National Literacy Trust - where we provide funding for their core programmes, volunteers, fund-raising and advocacy support
- Locally focused community investment programmes where clusters of stores ask the community what needs doing from a youth or environment perspective. After short listing by a stakeholder panel our customers vote on prioritising the projects and we provide unskilled volunteers and funds
- Acts of Kindness – local and national causes which partners support personally. As a company, Starbucks supports through product / gifts in kind National partnerships with the Prince's Trust and the National Literacy Trust - where we provide funding for their core programmes, volunteers, fund-raising and advocacy support
