We’ve always been involved with our community in one way or another, but last year, we decided to focus our efforts on promoting youth education in and around the Montreal community. Since then, we’ve partnered with local charities, like Youth in Motion, and schools that promote higher education too. But higher learning is pretty difficult when you don’t have the basics – like reading – mastered.
For a few weeks in the month of August, Vigilant Futures’ employees bid on items on an internal silent auction with proceeds going to the Montreal Raise-A-Reader 2010 Campaign. My very generous colleagues raised $4, 467.10 and every cent will make its way to those who need it.
Our company founders – a.k.a. the guys – have also decided Vigilant Futures should become a corporate sponsor of the Postmedia Raise-A-Reader campaign. We now cover the entire education cycle: from primary school with raise-A-reader, to high school with Youth Fusion and post-secondary education with our scholarships at local universities. According to a recent study, our timing to support a campaign benefitting organizations promoting literacy couldn’t be better.
A few weeks, the Globe & Mail featured a story on a new study from the Canadian Council on Learning. The study found the number of Canadians with low literacy skills will rise 25 per cent by 2031. That is a startling number and Canada’s four largest cities won’t do much better.
Saturday was a big day for the Aabid-Ezzerouali family. They finally got the keys to their new home their neighbours, local companies, and random volunteers built over this past year. They are the first Montreal family to move into a LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) home built by Habitat for Humanity Montreal. The project proves one can be environmenally friendly while on a tight budget.
The day was filled with festivities, starting with the key-giving ceremony and followed with a tour of the home, something Vigilant was very proud to partake in as a sponsor. Habitat also hosted a family day in Gadbois Park with plenty of food and drink, and lots of activities for kids.
Vigilant employees also volunteered their time to help with the construction of the home and it proved so popular a volunteering activity, we’re doing it again in a few weeks!
Vigilant Futures made the burden and worry of paying for university a little easier today with $3, 000 in scholarships for graduate students at the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). The scholarship is open to engineering students doing their Master’s degree in Electricity, Telecommunications, Information Technology and Software.
ÉTS is part of the Université du Québec network and specializes in teaching and research in applied engineering and technology transfer. Just walk into their main building in their downtown campus and you’ll be greeted by solar powered vehicles, lightweight submarines and lots of other very interesting feats of engineering their students have, over the years, entered (and won) in international engineering competitions.
The school caters to students with CEGEP diplomas (better known as junior college outside Quebec) who were perhaps disinterested by the prospect of attending university but throughout their junior college career decided otherwise. These students often face loads of prerequisite classes their CEGEP diplomas didn’t provide for entry into university. That’s where ÉTS comes in and continues the ‘hands on’ tradition these students are used to and mix it with the right number of theory classes too.
Giving everyone an opportunity to learn is precisely why Vigilant was more than happy to partner with ÉTS and offer their students the extra incentive to keep at their studies.
Paris is experimenting with a uniquely Italian idea to provide both flat and sparkling water from its public water fountains. They city hopes to wean Parisians from their plastic water-bottle habit and promote tap water since the country invests so much in maintaining the high quality.
The French consume about 40 gallons of bottled water per person each year, one of the highest per capita amounts not only in Europe, but also in the world. Read more from the New York Times article.
Everyone wants to work for a company that realizes the worth of reinvesting in its community and makes good on its corporate social responsibility policy. For women apparently this is one of the most important characteristics when searching and accepting a job.
According to a survey from the Simmons School of Management and Hewlett-Packard, women place greater importance on the role business plays in society and they seek power and leadership roles at work not entirely for personal gain, but rather as a means to make the world a better place.
Women feel more fulfilled in their career roles and are more likely to stay on with a company that meets both their traditional individualistic career needs and their socially-focused ones as well. So recruitment and retention are based on if a woman can advance within the company, but give back to the community at the same time.
From a firsthand account, I am thrilled to work for a company that really lives up to its promise of giving back to the community. I know it was one of the main reasons I was so excited to work here. But that’s just me. How about my colleagues? What do you think about the survey and how does it resonate with you and your Vigilant community experience?
To read the findings from the survey, click on the link below:
Anyone who works in the high-tech industry knows that the daily dress attire is, well, pretty laid back. Don’t get me wrong, I am big fan of the concept. It is a proven fact that employees are happier and perform way better when they are comfortable at the office.
But every once in a while, it’s nice to get dressed up so our team decided to initiate formal Wednesdays. Today was the first day we dressed the part and I have to say, everyone looked absolutely smashing.
Being the only woman in my department, I have to come up with creative ways to keep up with the guys on formal Wednesdays – staying on top of cutting edge fashion while keeping up with technology trends. Challenging yes…but according to Greendiary.com, the latest eco fashionistas trend is, well, have a look for yourself:
And for the guys, a T-shirt that spreads awareness on global warming by sensing changing temperature:
