What happens when teams come together to help their communities? Amazing things. During our first ever Nuance Cares Week, employees collected toys, food, coats and other essentials for people in need. Teams from Dublin to Mahwah, Seattle to Pune, Burlington to Aachen and beyond donated their time and dollars to support all types of organizations. This is what happens when we all work together to give back to our communities around the world.
In early December, we held our first ever Nuance Cares Week, a time dedicated to celebrating the spirit of giving across Nuance. It was an empowering reinforcement of Nuance Cares, our corporate social responsibility program. In this program, all Nuance employees worldwide have 16 hours of volunteer time off per calendar year as well as $1,000 in matched dollar-for-dollar contributions.
During Nuance Cares Week, employees collected toys, food, coats and other essentials for people in need. We lent our time to aid initiatives that support children’s education and well-being, the career advancement of under-served adults, local blood banks and more. We saw what happens when we all work together to give back to our communities around the world. And we didn’t stop here!
The efforts made during our first ever Nuance Cares Week were a great source of inspiration for our volunteer and giving efforts in the future. Here are a few of the inspiring highlights from the week:
Making education aids for children in our India offices
Led by our first ever community hero award winner Raghu Prasad, 277 enthusiastic employees from the Bangalore North, Hyderabad, Chennai and Coimbatore offices participated in a coordinated volunteer activity called Mothering Dreams, where they created educational aids for Anganwadi children. Anganwadi means “courtyard shelter, and it’s a type of rural childcare center in India. Our teams had a great time creating educational materials together while they celebrated in the connectedness of being part of an activity that took place across four offices. The India teams continue to be leaders in carrying out our Nuance Cares program.
Crafting cards for hospitalized kids in Burlington
Nuance Cares Week inspired the Global Technology Solutions (GTS) team to sponsor a card decorating event for Cards for Hospitalized Kids, a not-for-profit organization that has sent cards to more than 14,000 kids in more than 150 hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses nationwide. Valerie Somma, one of the organizers of the event, said that “the time flew by as we all worked together crafting and sharing ideas along with a little holiday music and gingerbread cookies.” The event was so popular that employees asked to use the remaining supplies in their free time to design more cards after the event!
And this isn’t the first time that the GTS group in Burlington came together to volunteer. Valerie led the group to give back on several other occasions, like when they cleaned the in the summer and when they volunteered at the together in the fall. This group is a shining example of what it looks like when a team prioritizes spending time together while also aiding the greater good.
Four weeks, four drives in the London office
The UK office went above and beyond for their Nuance Cares Week initiatives. The team expanded the event into an entire month of giving! Local leader Mel Francis said, “London is an affluent city but the level of people in poverty and crisis is sadly incredibly high. We wanted to do a little bit to help.”
She arranged weekly collections to support the Trussell Trust at the Westminster Foodbank, each week with a different theme. The group donated coats and backpacks during the first week, then moved on to donate food the next week. In their third week, employees donated pudding and sweets to spread cheer. In the final week, they donated toiletries and hygiene products. Each of these drives were tremendously successful, with the bin overflowing each week. Together the efforts showed a true dedication to helping others in need feel a little more comfortable and a little more joyful this holiday season.
These are just a few of the activities our global teams contributed to their local communities. Our teams in Dublin, Seattle, Melbourne, Mahwah, Burlington, Vienna and Turin hosted food, toy and or coat drives, collecting goods to empower hundreds of people in need. Small teams also volunteered together doing activities like mock interviewing at Career Collaborative, lending an extra and at food pantries, assembling packages of clothes at the Giving Factory and cleaning up local neighborhoods. This Nuance Cares Week has energized our workforce to go further with their giving and volunteering as part of the Nuance Cares program. We can’t wait to see what 2020 brings!