California Business Partners Program Promotes Corporate Volunteerism

By: Corey McKenna on December 17, 2010

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California Disaster Corps. Photo courtesy of Peter Grigsby/Office of the Governor.

It's imperative that the public sector and private sector communicate and plan before a disaster strikes. For that reason, the California Business Partners Program was created within the CaliforniaVolunteers office as a way to promote volunteerism within companies that do business in the state. Members are mostly Fortune 500 companies and a few small businesses with statewide operations.

CaliforniaVolunteers is the state office that manages programs and initiatives that organize volunteers and increase their numbers.

“We’re connecting with these companies year-round during nondisaster time when they’re just involved in their community,” said Karen Baker, California’s secretary of service and volunteering. “What we've found is that is a much more kind of robust way of partnering.”

That has led to meetings with the California Emergency Management Agency to establish a presence for CaliforniaVolunteers in the state’s Business and Utility Operations Center. Baker expects that will help emergency managers get requests, donated products and services, and resources in a more orderly fashion by establishing the needed relationships with the private sector before a disaster occurs. “It makes it much easier for the state to work with the private sector and be really targeted with what it needs, and be able to make an ‘ask’ of the private sector based on an established relationship, instead of just picking up the phone [and saying], ‘Hi, you don’t know me, but we need 2,000 generators,’” she said.

Recent additions to the 42 member companies include Wal-Mart and Lloyd’s of London.

Participants of the Business Partners Program, launched in September 2009, will also have their resources that are available for disaster aid visible in the Disaster Volunteer Resource Inventory, a statewide database of nonprofit, faith-based and corporate volunteer organizations. The database is currently being piloted and will also track participants’ expertise and capabilities.

The state turned to Deloitte to consult on the establishment of the program and has continued to participate in the program by providing volunteers as well as consulting services. Benefits to the company include a chance to give back to the state, connect with other corporations and play a part in expanding volunteerism among corporations in the state, according to Julie Quinn, managing director of Deloitte’s Sacramento, Calif., office.

You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/California-Business-Partners-Program.html

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