Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.
There is a strong business case for CSR, in that corporations benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own immediate, short-term profits.
An approach for CSR that is becoming more widely accepted is community-based development projects, such as the involvement of BP in Wamsutter Wyoming where they have set up a day care center in conjunction with the county. Often alternative approaches to this is the establishment of education facilities for adults. A more common approach of CSR is through the giving of aid to local organizations. Some organizations do not like this approach as it does not help build on the skills of the local people, whereas community-based development generally leads to more sustainable development.
In a Cowboy Safety program there is company involvement with the community which often means dealing with volunteers. In the old days a group of community volunteers was known as a posse. Today it might be called Community Advisory Panel (CAP). Then and today some form of training and support was needed.
As an example of community involvement, a small company in a small town in Wyoming wanted to have a Defensive Driving class for its three employees. The cost of having a trainer come in was prohibitive on a per person basis. But when it was expanded first to include employee spouses and children and then to the community it became worthwhile. The insurance savings alone did not justify the fee but when the employees' family and community benefit was factored in it was a whole other story.
In another case the company need for First aid training was evaluated in terms of the resources of the whole community and the addition to those resources by training company employees. The nature of the training and the number of people trained was changed. In addition Federal grant money became available.
Alive at 90 is an Elder Falls Prevention program that is designed to deal with a growing problem.
There are many causes of Elder Falls. The consequences can be most serious. Because the falls causes lifestyle and exercise disruption. Often death occurs within a year.
This program can be presented in about 10 minutes by anyone.
Read the Label First is a program to deal primarily with poisoning. It is designed to be presented to all educational levels.
Many people are functionally illiterate and are unable to read the labels. Other are not aware of the need to read the label first even when they can read. The purpose of this program is to work with these and other issues.
SCORE, originally Service Corps of Retired Executives, is a volunteer business counseling
service. There are 11,000 volunteers nationwide. Cowboy Safety users are encouraged to
become SCORE volunteers and to work in their communities. See www.score.org or www.scorewyoming.org.
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