Community Engagement

Community Engagement programmes throughout the Group are so widespread and embedded that we sometimes find it hard to keep track ourselves of what we are doing. The main reason for this is that it is simply 'what we do'. Our newspapers are integral to the lives of their readers and, particularly for our local and regional titles, are simply part of the fabric of their local communities.

This report is based on the review undertaken over the summer of 2008 but, given the space available, can only give a snapshot of the activities within businesses in the Group.

To help compose a comprehensive review of activities around the Group we offered a summer placement to a very bright graduate engaged in the 'Teach First' programme. Teach First takes enthusiastic and bright graduates and prepares them to spend two years teaching in inner city schools. They enter the programme rather than joining corporate graduate training schemes. During their placements, they are also expected to undertake work in the corporate sector to get exposure to the business world.

In the North East, NCJ Media have been one of the driving forces behind 'Launch Pad', which is a mission to positively influence the culture and attitudes towards enterprise in the North East, where there is a low percentage of business start ups compared to the rest of the country. The programme involves the provision of two large trucks which expand to reveal extensive space and facilities for a wide range of demonstrations, lectures and conferences. Some 7,000 people have been on Launch Pad and 120 have received at least six hours of enterprise skill training.

The Daily Mirror's 'Hope Not Hate' anti-racism campaign, launched in conjunction with 'Searchlight', started in Liverpool and toured the country on a double-decker bus carrying the message that modern Britain is a place of tolerance and diversity and a place where people of many different races and religions live and work together peacefully.

In the North West, the business has been very active in the Business in the Community 'Ready to Work' programme, which provides experience for people who have been rough sleeping or in temporary housing to help prepare them to get ready to get back into work through close mentoring, CV preparation and teaching interviewing skills.

The Daily Record's 'Kits for Kids' campaign allows local children's football teams to collect tokens to earn free club strips and other football equipment for local teams.

In the North East, the 'Go Green' campaign was launched through a weekly double page spread in the Evening Chronicle and a quarterly 32 page supplement, encouraging both readers and local businesses to be 'greener'. The business engaged in a series of activities for its own employees from the simple 'switch off' campaign for computers and lights to employee volunteering days. This campaign resulted in NCJ Media Limited and Trinity Mirror Printing (Newcastle) Limited being named Environmental Newspaper Company of the year at the 2008 Newspaper Awards.

The Daily Mirror's 'Honour the Brave' campaign ran over 10 months and succeeded in persuading the Government to make official recognition of the sacrifices being made by the armed forces.

The Liverpool Post and Daily Echo were the main drivers behind the 'Liverpool Unites' charity that began as a campaign to provide a platform for the people of Liverpool to demonstrate their opposition to gun crime and to show support for driving legislative changes surrounding gun and gang violence. The campaign was started after the murder of Rhys Jones. Over 200,000 purple ribbons were distributed free of charge.

Media Wales have been very active with Business in the Community and have launched an innovative programme in which local charity leaders are encouraged to join the Company's management training programme. This has turned out to be a symbiotic relationship with the charity leaders learning new business skills and the company managers being exposed to alternative approaches to common issues.

The Group has agreed to become a co-sponsor of Catch 22, an initiative that seeks to break the familiar pattern where a significant proportion of talented young adults are held back from securing employment because they do not have sufficient work related experience, exposure or qualifications. The organisation targets 18 to 30 year olds based in the London area who have not pursued the conventional academic pathway. The young people begin the scheme by taking an 'introduction to journalism' programme for three months at the Catch 22 academy and then are placed on a three month training programme within commercial media companies. The Group has agreed to take 12 students during 2009 with the first having started in January on titles in our regional business in the South and on the Daily Mirror.

In May 2008, Huddersfield Daily Examiner's Adrian Sudbury's awe-inspiring campaign to raise awareness of bone marrow donations captured the imagination of the entire nation, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Adrian, given only months to live after a long fight against leukaemia, wanted to use his time left to push for more people to register as bone marrow donors and to ensure all sixth form and college students are given at least one talk a year about the importance of bone marrow donation. A petition was launched on the Downing Street website and quickly gained 11,000 signatures, and was supported by many of the Group's titles. In response to Adrian's campaign the Government has written to every secondary school, sixth form and further education college in England highlighting the issue to them and urging them to consider using the free 'Give and Let Live' resource which has now been adapted to suit 17-18 year olds and is available to all schools on request.

The Group's titles believe they are nothing if they are not part of the community, in the community and for the community in which they are published.