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Building Community Capacity
SECOND ESG FOCUS AREA: BUILDING COMMUNITY CAPACITY
At Heritage, we are committed to the safety and well-being of our neighbouring communities.
We invest in programmes that focus on Education, Agriculture, Culture, Volunteering and Environment, areas that are relevant and have a tangible impact on the livelihoods of people.
To help build local capacity, we established a two-year Graduate Trainee Programme designed to provide incumbents with coaching, guidance and relevant work experience – thereby helping them prepare and transition to the world of work. We also have a scholarship programme called Heritage Education Resource Opportunity (HERO) that grants TT$100,000 to top-performing Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) students in our local communities. This grant is disbursed annually and on a structured basis from secondary school to completion of an undergraduate degree. Students are tracked and assisted with advice and mentorship to help prepare them for their futures and to give back to their communities.
With the increase in online learning, we also donated 462 computers to students in our communities and organisations such as the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago and to the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT). We also sponsored the development of the La Brea Student Support Centre where students are able to have access to computers and the internet to help facilitate their learning objectives. T&T is a nation rich in culture with music playing a key part of our society. In support of this we have sponsored the Siparia Deltones Steel Orchestra. Our support for the national instrument also extends to us supporting the Youth Music Literacy Programme of the ‘Palo Seco Diatonics’.
In the spirit of volunteerism, our employees have undertaken various community infrastructure improvement projects. This sense of volunteerism also sees our employees contributing significantly from their own pockets to various community initiatives aligned to our ESG Areas of Focus.
A major area of focus for the government and citizens of T&T is food sustainability. To support this agenda, we implemented an agricultural programme called ‘Here We Grow’ to empower households in our neighbouring communities to grow what they eat as well as train and assist them in making their farming initiatives economically viable.
Finally, we continue to sponsor the Pointeà-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust (PaPWFT) - a nonprofit making, volunteer organisation that was established in 1966 by Dick Dean and Johnny Cambridge. It is patterned after the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge UK, with the similar far-reaching vision that captive breeding of waterfowl for reintroduction into the wild, would become necessary to offset the dangers of poaching, overharvesting and pollution. Because of its location within a huge industrial complex, the PaPWFT serves as an example of industry and commerce working side-byside with the natural environment.
Key Stats
Sponsorship
contributions of TT$551K
Donations of TT$413K
HERO programme
investment of TT$30K
20,000 seedlings distributed for ‘Here We Grow’ programme
Mass Vaccinations
investment of TT$152K
2,280 Hampers distributed
