Community at Cannings - Talking Charitable Giving for B Corp Month

What is B Corp anyway?

B Corp™ is a certification given by a third party (the non-profit, B Lab) to for-profit companies that meet the highest standards of impact in a number of areas: social and environmental performance, governance, transparency and legal accountability. The goal of B Corp certification is to educate businesses and the public about balancing profit with purpose and using business as a force for good.

Community

One of the things B Corp measures is how a business contributes to the social and economic wellbeing of their local community. One of the ways that we engage with our local community is through our charitable giving. Through our Donations Program, every month we are able to support a variety of local charitable and community fundraisers - from local schools and sporting clubs right through to organisations fighting youth homelessness and more. In 2023 we donated over 11,000 sausages, which we estimate to have generated over $35,000* in fundraising capacity for our recipients! (*based on an estimate of about $3 per sausage sale price at fundraising BBQs).

We also donate regularly to five longstanding animal welfare organisations: Animals Australia, RSPCA Victoria, Sea Shepherd, Australian Marine Conservation Society and Humane Society.

In the spirit of sharing the love, we wanted to highlight some of the other amazing charities we’ve worked with in the past year, under our “community sausage” donations program.

Lighthouse Foundation:

“At Lighthouse, we're creating pathways to end youth homelessness, together.

We provide young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, with the care and support they need to heal, thrive and achieve a lifelong sense of belonging.

Through community collaboration and our evidence-based Lighthouse Model of Care, we create therapeutic homes and deliver tailored support programs to transform the lives of young people.

Our Lighthouse Homes, Foster and Family Care and In Community care environments ensure our support reaches the children and youth who need it, where they need it, for as long as they need it.”

Some stats from the past year at Lighthouse:

• They cared for 131 young people
• 1230+ young people are part of their On for Life community
• 508+ volunteers donated time and talents
• 52 fostering placements were provided

Learn more about Lighthouse here: https://www.lighthousefoundation.org.au/

The Inclusion Foundation’s emotion21 program:

“Supported and promoted by the Inclusion Foundation, emotion21 provides innovative dance and fitness programs for children and young adults with Down syndrome. Through performance-based activities and community engagement, emotion21 aims to enhance lives for people with Down syndrome.

The benefits of the emotion21 program are wide-ranging and include health, exercise, social and self-esteem outcomes for participants. These benefits in turn positively impact our student’s families and the community at large.”

Some stats from the past year at emotion21:

• 4 Dance Teachers with Down Syndrome employed
• 40 dance & fitness classes per week
• 2000 class hours taught
• 50+ weekly volunteers
• 197 Emotion21 dancers
• 200+ school students
• The Performance Company represented emotion21 at many public events, including at the Melbourne Fringe Festival (which Cannings was lucky enough to attend!)

Learn more about emotion21 here: https://inclusionfoundation.org.au/emotion21/

Servants Community Housing:

"Servants Community Housing is a local charity providing safe, long-term housing for people on low incomes and at risk of homelessness. Their unique model, which especially caters for people experiencing acute mental illness, disabilities, and people fleeing violence, includes long term tenancies, live-in house managers (check out this Channel 10 feature of one of their house managers) and established connections to support agencies, community groups and the larger neighborhood in Boroondara.

Founded on the belief that every person deserves a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home, Servants nurtures intentional communities of residents who live semi-independently but remain connected by a shared sense of belonging. More than a social and community housing provider, Servants exists to create communities where respect, dignity, hope and opportunity are nurtured."

Beyond a House to a Home

"One of Servants’ key signature programmes is ‘For the Love of Good’, a resident engagement program supporting good mental health, tackling social isolation, and removing barriers to employment for residents. This involves residents looking after on-site beehives and harvesting the honey for sale. Engaging in beekeeping offers a therapeutic outlet where residents care for the bees and the final product of the honey fosters a sense of accomplishment, promoting overall well-being and mindfulness. Beyond on-site, residents also handpick organic apples at a farm in Warragul, which is then pressed into sparkling apple juice for sale. For the good work in providing a place residents can call home, ‘For the Love of good’ was even featured last year on Channel 9 News."

Learn more about Servants here: https://www.servants.org.au/neighbourhood/