Running head: Reflection Paper Corporate Social Responsibility Outing

Seminar on Business and Society Chicago

Reflection Paper Corporate Social Responsibility Outing

Kimberly Young
International College of the Cayman Islands

BE/SO 425
Instructor: Dr. David Marshall
May 20th, 2016

Allstate Corporate Responsibility and Chicago Corporate Responsibility

On Friday May 20th, 2016 the Students, President and I from the International College of
the Cayman Islands started our First Seminar adventure at the North Suburban YMCA.
Our Lecture and Activity was headed by Laura Freveletti Senior Manager, Community
Engagement for Allstate and President-Elect of the CR Group. When we reached to the company,
the staff was so friendly and welcoming, they provided us with breakfast, we got to introduce
ourselves, and then the meeting began. What I found interesting was the meaning of YMCA, it
stands for Young Mens Christian Association.
We met Ms. Alley, who focuses on communication, youth empowerment and social
media campaigns, Libbey Louis is in charge of marketing, she is joining corporate relations team
in a few months, Melanie Wong is in charge of volunteer focus for executives charity non-profit
organizations and All State fellows- skills based All State program.
Ms. Laura talked about All-States goal as to continue to build significant goodwill for
Allstate and further differentiate our brand. Our good work will make such a positive impact that
others- including partners and influencers- will take note and be inspired to advocate on our
behalf. She also went ahead to mention the groups that they have created and support, their
signature issues being the Purple Purse which is breaking the cycle of domestic violence through
financial improvement, the next is Good Starts Young which builds character in todays youth to
drive greater success in life. There next will be based on community support such as Helping
Hands which talks about recognizing local All Stater volunteer efforts and the Greater Good
which talks about filling the succession gap in the non-profit sector. All States Corporate
Responsibility mission is to create value, boost All States business performance through
voluntary initiatives that deliver a positive impact on society. The company consists of 30,000

Allstate Corporate Responsibility and Chicago Corporate Responsibility

employees and 30,000 agency owners and staff. Melody talked about the officer non-profit based
program that provides development opportunity, she stated that there were 33 non-profits added
an all-state officer to their board in 2015, 30% more officers served on non-profit boards than in
2014, 68 officers were board members at 82 non-profits at the end of 2015, 36% of all- state
officers serve on non-profit boards and 60% of all- state corporate charitable giving.
Ms. Laura then went on to explain the difference between Corporate Responsibility
which is when a company does the research, what makes sense for the company consumers, and
it is basically overarching. While Community Outreach is a component of Corporate
Responsibility, however it depends on how an individual is giving specifically back to
communities.
Our second adventure was located at World Business Chicago, the company helps other
companies navigate the relocation and expansion process, working in partnership with real estate
and sale selection teams, they are a publication partnership that serves as a conduit to the
business and civic communities, they unite all the necessary parties and demonstrate that
Chicago is the ultimate global business destination.
They stated that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is focused on making Chicago the most businessfriendly city in the nation. By announcing nearly 40,000 new jobs from 160 companies,
streamlining business creation, licensing and permitting processes, investing in better
transportation, logistics, infrastructure and educational systems and talks about over $500 million
in recurring spending cuts to get to the Citys budget in order without any increase in broad
based taxes.

Allstate Corporate Responsibility and Chicago Corporate Responsibility

Basically, the presentation was about intriguing people to visit or move to Chicago and
the points she used were Why Chicago? Location, location, location; depth of quality talent,
business friendly and efficient, global economic powerhouse and the quality of life.
What I have learnt today is related to the topic Business and Society and the text is
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which means that the idea that businesses should act in a
way that enhances society and their stake-holders and be held accountable for any of its actions
that affect people, their communities, and their environment. (Lawrence & Weber, 2013)
This concept is based in the root of the term responsibility, meaning to pledge back,
creating a commitment to give back to society and the organizations stakeholders.
(Lawrence & Weber, 2013) (pg. 49) , how I believe that YMCA has similar goals in regards to
their community outreach programs such as the Purple Rain which focuses on domestic violence,
whereas Cayman has a company called the Crisis Centre which also focuses on domestic
violence victims.
I think a program that can be implemented into the Cayman Islands would be the
program that was also created by YMCA which is called the they say project, and it was created
in April, year 2015, it started because of people telling children that they cant do anything
because of their age, so the they say program helps them to build confidence, and to define
negative stereotypes to show the world that they can do it no matter what they say, they then
have teens from all around the world do campaigns with signs advertising what people said they
could not do and how they can overcome it, the example that was given was based on a 13 year
old boy who found a potential bug in Instagram security software, he then sent the information
and they rewarded him with a check for $10,000 he is an example of they say program.

Allstate Corporate Responsibility and Chicago Corporate Responsibility

References
Lawrence, A. T. & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public
policy (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.