PR and Creative agency, Smarts has announced Simon Community as their official charity partner in Northern Ireland, and Crisis as their charity partner in GB, as part of their social responsibility initiative; ‘Be The Smarts Change’.
‘Be The Smarts Change’ is the first campaign from their newly relaunched Smarts Community programme which aims to harness and utilise the passion and purpose of the diverse skillset of Smarts staff to make a positive impact to communities.
With the cost of living crisis starting to bite, the stats reveal a bleak picture with 12,000 people each year - 250 people every week - being deemed homeless and three homeless people dying every week in NI alone.
Read more: Belfast homeless couple on battle for their child and future
Of the homeless community in NI, around 4000 are children who will be homeless this Christmas. It is no surprise that after consultation with the 130-strong workforce, poverty and homelessness were the areas staff were keen to focus their collective efforts on helping.
Both Simon Community and Crisis aim to provide a place where people experiencing homelessness can gain a sense of belonging and to help them find a home rather than just a roof over their head. This purpose chimed with Smarts staff who wasted no time in kickstarting the work when they took part in the ‘One Big Sleep Out’ to raise awareness and vital funds for the charities.
Over the next 12 months, Smarts has pledged to donate over £400k worth of agency time to charitable causes. In addition to their efforts with Simon Community and Crisis, every single member of staff in the organisation - from the receptionist to the CEO - will take two days a year to devote to any charitable or worthwhile cause they desire to make a positive impact on the communities they work with.
Smarts was joined by CEO of Simon Community, Jim Denison, at their Holywood based agency HQ as they announced the partnership and launched the CSR initiative.
Jim said: “The scale of homelessness is at crisis point so we’re really excited to be working together with Smarts to plot a way forward that makes a real difference.
"Simon Community has ambitious plans and by working with Smarts we have access to some enormous talent that we can utilise across the board, from branding and creating awareness to volunteering and fundraising.
"Our current project, Create Homes, aims to provide homes for people stuck in accommodation. We currently have eight homes with a plan to hit 50 across Northern Ireland in the next two years and without the investment from companies such as Smarts and joined up thinking we would be unable to realise this vision.”
Jim was hosted by Pippa Arlow, Global CEO of Smarts, who said: “We are proud of the purpose driven culture we have fostered and our work with Smarts Community has always been at the core of what we do. It’s the right thing to do and now more than ever, we’re excited to be putting our renewed energy, focus and commitment into our new charity partners, Simon Community in NI and Crisis in GB.
"Smarts has enjoyed exponential growth over the last few years and it’s incredibly important for all our people to recognise the highly privileged position we are in, and to focus the skills and expertise we have to help the wider community outside of our own marketing bubble.”
More information on Smarts Community can be found at Smarts Agency Instagram.
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