Timberland mentors youth through City Year

Since 1988, Timberland is a founding sponsor of the not-for-profit organisation City Year, making it the first youth service corps launched entirely through private sector support.

City Year is a member of the AmeriCorps network and has grown into a national service organization that unites hundreds of outstanding young adults, ages 17 to 24, for a demanding ten months of full-time community service in urban public education, leadership, and civic engagement. City Year sends teams of young people from diverse backgrounds into communities in need. City Year participants serve as mentors in public schools and run after-school programs that focus on social issues such as domestic violence prevention and AIDS awareness. Each year, over 1,500 CIty Year corps members from all backgrounds unite for a year of full-time service across the United States and in South Africa. As lead investor and strategic partner, Timberland helps City Year give young people the skills and opportunities to change the world.

The collaboration between City Year and the Timberland Company started as a simple request for a donation of 50 boots. The partnership grew and diversified. The benefits were mutual, and they are ongoing. Timberland continues to provide clothing, financial support, access to helpful people, and office space for the local corps. City Year continues to provide service opportunities and training, and it makes a significant contribution to building a service culture in Timberland.

The Timberland Company and City Year are demonstrating that partnerships can move beyond the expected to establish a new baseline, forming a strategic and interdependent alliance. The entities co-mingled their infrastructures to support the City Year Service Corps program in such areas as financial, staffing and operations, as well as communications.

City Year and the Timber-land Company are living proof that partnerships guided by a clear mission and values, operating principles, cultural support, brand messaging, and communications processes can bring triple bottom line results for the company, society and the environment. To date, Timberland, has invested about $20m in funds and in-kind donations (it provides every City Year corps member with a uniform.) This relationship is still going strong. Currently, CityYear is co-located in the Timberland headquarters.

Further information


Categorisations

Partnership types

Project funding; Provision of services / personnel; Provision of goods

Regions / countries / territories

Africa: South Africa Americas: United States

Global issues

Community development; Education and training

Business sectors

Retail trade