Civic 50 Honorees AT&T and Hasbro Made a Difference by Mentoring Youth

Maya Angelou. Quincy Jones. Sting. Tom Brokaw. President Bill Clinton. What do all of these people have in common? Their successes in life would not have been possible without the guidance and advice of a mentor. Civic 50 sector leaders AT&T and Hasbro Inc. recognize the importance of mentorship – especially in the lives of underserved youth who may lack the resources or individuals in their lives to guide them through tough decisions such as college, career, and more. While leaders in their respective sectors, these companies have also taken the lead on aligning purpose with profit and giving back to the community, and in these examples, through youth mentoring.

With the introduction of their innovative community and talent development program, Transforming Talent, Hasbro – the consumer discretionary sector leader for the 2016 Civic 50 – stands by their purpose to make the world a better place for children and their families. In partnership with Year Up, a leading workforce development and higher education nonprofit, Hasbro provides college classes, corporate internships, educational stipends, and mentoring to youth that simply need a chance. This strategic partnership with Year Up allows integration between Hasbro’s community engagement program and its business interests.

Transforming Talent provides a platform for Hasbro to work toward their employee engagement, and diversity and inclusion goals, but more importantly, generates a pipeline of full-time, diverse talent from young adults who would otherwise not have access to the corporate workforce. The success of Hasbro’s Transforming Talent program is evident through the statistics alone: 75 percent of the Transforming Talent graduates have been hired as full-time employees at Hasbro.

Communications sector leader AT&T is also committed to inspiring youth within their communities through guidance and mentoring. In 2012, AT&T Aspire, the company’s signature philanthropic initiative focused on helping students succeed in high school and beyond, launched an expanded mentoring program. Through Aspire, AT&T collaborates with leading education nonprofits to match employees with students who will benefit the most from mentoring. The program is a flexible resource for both employees and students as mentoring events take place in the classroom, at AT&T locations, within the local community and even online.

This school year, AT&T is contributing more than $1.3 million to innovative organizations such as iCouldBe, iMentor, and We Teach Science to help even more students explore their potential through online and in-person mentoring. They are also providing funding to bring careers to classrooms through an innovative program called Nepris that matches professionals with classrooms virtually to help connect what students are learning at school to their future careers. As of January 2016, more than 160,000 students had been mentored in 336 cities for a total of 1 million employee volunteer hours. AT&T has demonstrated a profound impact on the communities they serve by helping underserved youth connect with their passions and potential.

AT&T and Hasbro demonstrate what can be accomplished when companies use their internal strengths and resources to improve the communities where they live and work. As sector leaders of the Civic 50, they scored the highest in the annual Civic 50 survey, a benchmarking effort to recognize and honor the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation. Hasbro and AT&T are just two examples of the many companies that are translating good intentions into sound business practices and best using their time, talent, and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.

Do you work with a community-minded corporation that is a champion of corporate engagement and exemplifies the ideals of the Civic 50? Follow the Civic 50 on LinkedInor Twitter or email civic50@pointsoflight.org to receive updates on the 2017 survey, which will launch Tuesday, November 15 and close on March 1, 2017. For more information and a full list of the 2016 Civic 50 winners, visit www.civic50.org or sign up for our technical assistance webinar “2017 Civic 50: What You Need to Know” which will take place on Friday, November 18 from 1 – 2 PM ET.