On February 28, 2015 ten Symantec employees from around the globe will depart for Ankara, Turkey to kick-off the second year of the Symantec Service Corps program, a month-long initiative that provides pro-bono consulting to local non-profits, supporting Symantec’s commitment to making a positive social impact, building cultural awareness, and developing leaders across all levels of the organization.
As part of the program, Symantec selects three organizations to work alongside, helping to provide critically-needed business services. Today, we are proud to announce this year’s beneficiaries: International Children’s Center, Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants, and Flying Broom.
The International Children’s Center (ICC) promotes the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of children and serves as an advocate for human rights, the rights of women and children, and reproductive rights. The organization is a strong promoter of online safety, a key component of Symantec’s focus on cybersecurity.
ICC research shows that families in Turkey do not have the necessary skills and/or interest in helping children monitor their Internet usage, and a considerable number of children encounter inappropriate images online including child exploitation. For this project, there is an opportunity for the Symantec Service Corps team of Patty Christofferson (Mountain View, CA), Archana Rajan (Culver City, CA), Shantanu Gattani (Mountain View, CA), and Rachel Yokum (Mountain View, CA) to impact the online safety of children throughout Turkey by developing an online campaign strategy to raise awareness of the problem and provide solutions, along with recommendations on developing social media tools and activities.
The Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD) is a non-governmental organization that develops solutions to address the challenges that refugees and asylum seekers encounter in Turkey, and helps to meet their basic and social needs, particularly the most vulnerable populations: women, children, and the elderly. Support services include legal, psychosocial, financial aid, medical, and health and nutrition. This program is aligned with Symantec’s commitment to improving human rights.
The SGDD has been overwhelmed with more than 20,000 visitors seeking their services each month, and currently all of the registrations and service provisions are done by hand. The Symantec Service Corps team of Sohini Nathoo (Johannesburg, South Africa), Joseph Gifford (Dublin, Ireland), and Mirabel Ramos (Culver City, CA) will engage with SGDD to understand the needs and requirements for an online system to enable multiple users at various locations to track their clients, as well as to provide a simplified reporting system.
Flying Broom is a women’s organization that is focused on enhancing gender equality by providing information and training to empower women and women’s organizations, and contributing to the development of effective policies to tackle problems arising from inequality. Their programs are aligned with Symantec’s commitment to diversity and empowering women around the world.
In working with Flying Broom, Symantec Service Corps team members Tammi Dooley (Heathrow, FL), Amitoj Duggal (Pune, India) and Travis Goldberg (Dublin, Ireland) will work to improve and protect the tremendous film archives associated with the organization’s 18-year International Women’s Film Festival. They will research potential tools for online archiving and sharing of film materials, and provide recommendations and an action plan to make festival materials available to the public.
Preparing for Turkey
The Symantec Service Corps team is at work preparing for this year’s trip, and is eager and excited to offer their support to these three organizations.
Similar to last year, they will share their experiences about the assignments, culture, team, and more while they are deployed. Stay tuned to the Service Corps website for updates on these projects and the team’s adventures in Turkey, and please let us know if there’s anything in particular you’d like the team to report back on!