CHAPTER 8
Aramark
Partnerships to Invest in the Community and Workforce
Bev Dribin
Philadelphia-based Aramark, a global professional services company, has for many years connected with the communities where employees live and work to offer a wide range of services to people in need, including job training and workforce-readiness programs.
In 2006, Aramark embarked on a process to create a company-wide community involvement strategy. Through the process, we learned that community centers, which provide a wide range of critical services to families in need, could benefit from Aramark’s greatest strengths, not only in nutrition and wellness expertise and facilities enhancement, but also in workforce readiness and education. As a company with 270,000 employees, Aramark hires, trains, and develops hundreds of employees each year. This expertise has helped people in the communities in which Aramark operates develop the skills and opportunities for the local workforce.
Overview of Community Partnerships for Workforce Development
Aramark found an excellent partner in community centers, neighborhood gathering places where individuals and families go for the help and resources they need to succeed. Community centers help people feel empowered to improve their situation and their neighborhood. These local, independent centers often have their own buildings and provide comprehensive programs to address the needs of individuals and family members of all ages, such as day care and preschool, recreation facilities, charter schools, meal programs, after-school enrichment, senior services, career counseling, adult education, and much more.
Community centers address some of the nation’s toughest challenges, especially during difficult economic times. In 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 9.5 million people remain unemployed or underemployed, and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, poverty continues to grip over 46 million Americans.* These centers help families face the challenges of poverty, providing support services as they prepare for and find meaningful work to realize their potential and move out of poverty.
To help connect Aramark to the community centers most in need and help direct resources to the local level, the company works with existing nonprofits in the communities, including those that are members of the Alliance for Strong Children and Families (Alliance). With a combined membership of more than 525 community-based organizations, Alliance members represent a significant force in the human services sector, serving more than 8,000 communities and millions of clients/customers annually. Aramark has been working with the Alliance for more than 7 years, providing grants, volunteers, and capacity building programs through the Aramark Building Community (ABC), the company’s volunteer and philanthropic program that supports individuals and families working their way out of poverty. Today, Aramark partners with more than 52 community centers in the United States and abroad through ABC.
Working with these trusted, neighborhood-based organizations provides Aramark with an opportunity to enhance the workforce and training programs that are already in place at the centers, and to develop new programs that utilize Aramark employees’ unique skills.
Program Description
Through the Aramark Building Community, Aramark develops long-term partnerships with local organizations and community centers to create workforce “opportunity zones” where people can access educational programs, learn skills, and explore new opportunities. Within these opportunity zones, Aramark volunteers enhance and upgrade classrooms, computer labs, and libraries to make them more inviting and efficient. Throughout the year, regional groups of Aramark employees, called “star teams,” bring together Aramark’s diverse workforce within designated geographic areas to support and respond to the needs of their local communities. These Aramark employees volunteer to help prepare youths and adults for careers and connect them to the workforce. Aramark also provides community centers with resources to implement a variety of workforce development and lifelong learning programs, including workforce-readiness programs for job seekers, and the ABC Academy.
Case Studies
Farming for Good: Why Work Is Essential for Teens to Develop and Leave Poverty
Every morning this summer, 17-year-old Jennifer travels 1 hour by public transportation from the homeless shelter where she lives to the urban farm at Philadelphia’s Lutheran Settlement House. There, she earns her first paychecks as a participant in a program called Teens 4 Good.
Teens 4 Good, a program of the Federation of Neighborhood Centers, is supported by Aramark—helping young teens to rise out of poverty and learn job skills. The program is turning vacant lots into farms that support at-risk youths with meaningful jobs to help them grow. Few of these teens have strong role models in the workforce. Without help gaining employment, these teens would be left without the necessary life skills and experiences to hold a job in adulthood. For many of these young people, this is their very first paycheck.
For a teenager like Jennifer, that first job is a critical life experience. When she started with the program, she’d find ways to avoid the work: faking illness was a common ploy. By the end of the program, she learned that every morning, at 9:00 a.m. sharp, she was expected to show up ready to give this job and her coworkers her all.
The farm at Lutheran Settlement House is just one of six urban farms across Philadelphia providing more than 8,000 pounds of produce to 25 low-income neighborhoods with desperately limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. At the end of the summer, the teens worked with Aramark employees to create an iced tea using the fruits and herbs of the garden that they can market and sell by the bottle. It’s an opportunity for the teens to learn that they are more than their own muscle; they can earn their paycheck just by putting their minds to work. It’s a lesson that can only be learned through employment in those critical years, to know that their ideas hold value and worth and can help them break the cycle of poverty for themselves.
Opportunities for a Vulnerable London Neighborhood
Since 2009, Aramark has partnered with Community Links in the East London borough of Newham, providing training, jobs, and other support to help revitalize this community—before, during, and after the London Summer Games.
Employees from the team working the Games volunteered to transform unused space at the center into a hub for workforce readiness for local residents looking for jobs. As Aramark assembled the staff of 3,000 to provide food service during the London 2012 Games, 40 people from Community Links were hired, giving them skills and experience for future jobs. When London 2012 concluded, several were hired back at Aramark client locations.
Workforce-Readiness Programs for Job Seekers
One of the greatest barriers for people seeking employment is a lack of basic work experience and interpersonal skills. Working with community centers, Aramark created a workforce-readiness curriculum featuring modules for both trainers and job seekers focused not only getting a job but also on keeping the job. Through the program, hundreds of individuals have benefited from career resources, including one-on-one career counseling and résumé preparation assistance.
Through classes and Aramark-sponsored career fairs with Aramark Building Community career education zones, company human resources professionals facilitate workshops, coach job seekers on skills and résumés, and assist with job placement. Hundreds of people have been placed in jobs and internships, internally and externally, as a result of this focus.
ABC Academy
The Aramark Building Community (ABC) Academy is a forum to enhance the operational and program excellence of community centers in the areas of community health and wellness and employment. The ABC Academy is managed in partnership with the Alliance for Children and Families. As part of the ABC Academy, Aramark provides workforce development grants and partners Aramark volunteers with organizations to help prepare individuals to find and keep jobs. The Academy also provides center leaders and professionals with online and in-person resources and tools, to increase their effectiveness and capacity to meet the needs of families in diverse neighborhoods.
Program Impact
The Aramark Building Community has been fully operating since 2008. In that time, more than 20,000 Aramark employees from multiple business units have donated over 50,000 hours of time. In addition, Aramark has given more than $8 million in cash grants and donations. We estimate we have reached nearly 4 million people in 52 cities. ABC has placed approximately 500 unemployed youth or adults in jobs.
Aramark Building Community has been recognized by more than 60 entities, and has also received recognition from organizations and elected officials in Houston, Kansas City, New York, Miami, Boston, Glendale (CA), and Memphis.
• In Houston, both the City of Houston and Harris County declared November 15, 2012, as Aramark Building Community Day “for its dedication to serving Houston families in need and providing them with additional resources that are great stepping stones for bettering their lives.”
• Aramark was also recognized by the National Restaurant Association as the 2012 “Restaurant Neighbor of the Year” for the Aramark Building Community.
• On the local level, Aramark has been recognized by the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association of Memphis as the “Organization of the Year,” and by Don Bosco Centers in Kansas City, for “Outstanding Volunteer Service.”
Conclusion
The Aramark Building Community has expanded every year since 2008, as new community center partners are added to the Aramark Building Community family, and new programs that help people prepare for and find meaningful work are launched. The needs of communities and the resources that Aramark can provide are ever-evolving, and the Aramark Building Community addresses each community’s unique needs.
Reflecting on the history of Aramark Building Community, we recognize the importance of creating a thoughtful long-term plan, to help set goals, develop the program, and allow it to grow to address emerging issues in communities. Strong strategic partnerships are also essential. Relationships with other organizations with complementary initiatives that align with Aramark’s goals for the program help create greater impact for the community.
Because employee volunteerism is so critical to the program’s success, it is essential that a strong connection be made between employee skills and community impact. For example, at Aramark, that can mean efforts to connect human resources experts, who oversee a workforce of 270,000 people, to the workforce-readiness programs at community centers. By equipping the most engaged employees with the resources they need to execute the program, the greatest impact can be achieved.
* For more information see: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business-july-dec11-poverty_09-13/.