a passion for society, a passion for art and culture,
BBVA Banco Provincial Venezuela reinforces its community involvement
3 September 2009
BBVA Banco Provincial is constantly reinforcing its commitment to make a permanent and unfaltering contribution to Venezuelan society through undertaking a variety of programmes within the framework of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy.
Over this year, BBVA Banco Provincial has enhanced its CSR activities, with a view to long-term sustainability, in which the involvement of its senior management and all the Bank’s employees form an essential part of its corporate strategies.
In the framework of the actions undertaken, the figure of the Corporate Responsibility and Reputation Committee (CRRC) has been further consolidated as the body responsible for defining and monitoring the projects. Its aims are no other than to strengthen the role CSR plays in global and business strategy, monitoring progress in the different lines of work as a way of assuring that set targets are met and broadening the scope of the various programmes to benefit increasingly wider sectors of society.
During 2009, this Committee, comprising the Communications and Image, Corporate Development, Legal Services, Regulatory Compliance, Advertising, Finance, Risk Management, Channels, and Procurement, Premises and Services departments has been convened three times.
As a supplement to these meetings, the CRR Committee is in constant communication with the business and support areas, in order to drive the integration of criteria, activities and integral policies regarding corporate social responsibility.
One of this working group’s main lines of actions is to do with “listening” activity, the aim of which is to assess the perceptions and expectations of the Bank’s various stakeholders. These sessions have served to analyse the results of several opinion surveys, internal and external customer quality and corporate reputation questionnaires, satisfaction surveys to do with educational programmes and topics concerning internal prevention, amongst others. These analyses have revealed new and important opportunities for improvement in the various corporate responsibility programmes under way in BBVA Banco Provincial.
This body also monitors the various CSR programmes undertaken by the Bank in the sphere of education, culture and other corporate initiatives, while at the same time, new proposals are being brought forward which enable us to reaffirm our social commitment.
Education as the key to development
With a view to furthering the BBVA Integración Scholarships scheme, which enables 4,500 high school students from underprivileged sectors on a national level to remain in the education system, a scholarship-holder follow-up system was created, using a computer application developed by the Bank that enables it to monitor students’ class attendance and their average grades.
This information means that both the voluntary tutors and the educational authorities of the schools belonging to the Venezuelan Association for Catholic Education (AVEC) and to Fe y Alegría, the institutions collaborating in this scheme, can support the students in their studies and broach any situation or need that may arise, in order to offer them the best backing and help them complete their secondary education.
Alternatively, within the framework of the eleventh anniversary celebrations of the Papagayo Programme, the award ceremony was held for the national prize-winners of the Literary Creation Competition 2008-2009, whose jury was made up of outstanding figures from the world of literature. This initiative aimed at education in values and fostering reading and literary creation among children in basic education year 6, has directly benefited over 39,000 school children and 1,324 teachers. Likewise, it is reckoned that over 200,000 people in the educational community have benefited indirectly from said programme.
Committed Employees
In order to achieve an increasingly higher engagement in the undertaking of educational programmes, BBVA Banco Provincial encourages its employees to voluntarily take part in solidarity projects.
There has been a corporate volunteer force initiative working for three years in the Papagayo Programme, in which some 50 employees from the Venezuela branch network support the undertaking of a variety of activities, featuring: Teacher-training workshops, prize awards and other aspects associated with logistics between the schools taking part.
Likewise, since the end of 2008, there has been a drive to raise participation among employees in support of the BBVA Integración Scholarships scheme. Thanks to the Tutor Voluntariado Corporativo Programme, 260 employees from all over the country have made up a volunteer network, which, in the first stage, was responsible for running satisfaction surveys among the families of the scholarship holding students. For late 2009, new activities are expected to be undertaken involving this volunteer initiative.
