KPMG

KPMG

Children are the Future

For KPMG volunteers, making a difference starts with engaging directly with children, through reading, discussion and play

After successfully pivoting to virtual programmes at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, KPMG is now pushing forward with its efforts and employees are delighted to be able to again reach out to their local community in the real world.

“It’s been a challenging couple of years, and we’ve adapted like every other organisation and did the best we could in terms of engagement online,” says Karina Howley, Head of Corporate Citizenship & Diversity, KPMG. “But definitely, there’s a distinct enthusiasm from our people to get back to in-person classroom activities.”

Nowhere was this more evident than in KPMG’s involvement with Children’s Books Ireland, a longstanding partnership which has seen KPMG volunteers go out to schools to give of their time for reading and discussion with school kids, to develop their interest in books.

“You’re out in the classrooms, you’re directly talking to the kids; as brilliant as technology is, and it has been fantastic, there is nothing like going out into schools and having that hands-on engagement of picking up physical books and doing practical activities in-person.”

As part of the partnership with Children’s Books Ireland, 80 KPMG people volunteered in schools across Ireland to support the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Junior Juries. Hundreds of young people signed up to be on Junior Juries throughout Ireland for the Children’s Book Awards. They read some of the best Irish children’s books of the year, and scored the titles to decide the winner of the Junior Juries Award, giving the young people a sense of empowerment that their opinions matter.

The KPMG volunteers were delighted to be able to go out to Junior Juries in 50 different schools across the country to help them get them excited about reading through interactive sessions and activities. “We had to adapt during the pandemic to doing things online, getting volunteers to make videos that we distributed to schools; this year was the first time we’ve been able to go out and build on the work that we’d done in the previous two years and get real traction on it.”

CLUB TOGETHER Another exciting new project, which was one of many pitched by teams of colleagues internally and chosen by Howley with Managing Partner Seamus Hand and other senior leaders, is the KPMG LEGO® Club for North-East

Inner City (NEIC) primary schools, within a 1.5km radius of KPMG’s Harbourmaster office in IFSC. For Howley, it was a clear winner among the projects pitched.

“The team had done a needs assessment and really demonstrated that there was a huge need for this in the community. It ticked all the boxes, in terms of a community in-need on our doorstep, and our employees

IT TICKED ALL THE BOXES, IN TERMS OF A COMMUNITY IN-NEED ON OUR DOORSTEP, AND OUR EMPLOYEES THAT WERE ABLE TO VOLUNTEER THEIR TIME, EFFORT AND ENERGY TO WORK WITH DISADVANTAGED YOUTH

KPMG

were able to volunteer their time, effort and energy to work with disadvantaged youths.”

Run in partnership with local community youth centres and school completion programmes, the LEGO® club involves instructor-led LEGO® therapy, a social skills intervention for school-age children based around collaborative LEGO® play. It motivates children to improve their emotion recognition skills, and their social interaction, as well as logistical and problem-solving skills. KPMG has provided funding to go towards the purchase of LEGO® pieces,

storage, cleaning equipment and staff training, and volunteers engaged in a four-week challenge assisting the children to build original creations with a sustainable twist.

For the teams whose projects are chosen to move forward, seeing the fruits of their ideas make a real impact in the community is profoundly gratifying. “They definitely have that sense of ownership and responsibility, and a pride in terms of seeing the results of their hard work and endeavours,” says Howley. FREE TO BE ME Another innovative new programme with Children’s Books Ireland was the Free To Be Me programme. It celebrates diversity, representation, and inclusion in books for children, showcasing the rich diversity of modern Ireland and ensuring that every child can see themselves reflected in a book while learning about the lives of others whose experiences and perspectives may differ from their own.

The Free To Be Me reading guide contains over 360 book recommendations compiled by a team of expert reviewers, each title chosen for its portrayal of diverse characters, themes, and experiences. Throughout the year, KPMG volunteers hosted workshops in schools across the country schools to spread the Free To Be Me message and donated Little Libraries of 100 books from the guide to each participating school. As part of the programme 30,000 copies of the Reading Guide which were sent to every school on the island and every public library in the Republic of Ireland.

“We’ve got some amazing feedback from teachers involved in the programme, saying children in their classes are so excited to see kids like themselves that they wouldn’t normally see reflected in books,” Howley notes.

“Through this project we hope to stimulate conversations around the issues, and develop young people’s values, attitudes and knowledge,” explains Howley. “By achieving these aims we hope to better prepare young people to help shape and be part of a more equitable society. We imagine an Ireland where all children and their families feel welcomed, valued, celebrated, and respected. By supporting young people, we hope to help achieve this vision.”