A Review of Our CSR Activities in 2020

Despite Corona, OTRS Group has taken creative steps to give back.

Whenever we look back in the future to the year 2020, we will think of Corona. The crisis has shaped the year and influenced our lives in a way that has never happened before. And yet, there were also many wonderful inspiring moments. The employees of OTRS AG especially enjoyed helping other people.

The Corona crisis also gave us the opportunity to pause for a moment in our stressful, fast-paced everyday lives and reflect on whether we have been running in the right direction, holding on to the right things, and whether other people might need even more help than we do.

A review of our CSR activities:

We Supported The Women’s Shelters in Frankfurt and Oberursel

When a lockdown was declared for the first time in March and government measures took effect, we all felt restricted in our personal freedom. But how did those feel who, as an extended family, were crammed together in a few square meters and saw no way out? It quickly became clear that the propensity to violence was rising during these days and that women’s shelters have been playing a special role in protecting women and their children.

We wanted to support this. Without hesitation, we called on the employees to collect donations in kind, such as clothes, cosmetics and games, to donate to the Frankfurt women’s shelter. The appeal was a complete success; we were able to quickly fill a large number of boxes to make everyday life in the women’s shelter a little easier for the women and their children.

Due to the positive feedback, we repeated this campaign in late summer for the women’s shelter in Oberursel and combined it with a donation of 1,000 € and an urgently-needed bicycle. It was nice to be able to share the joy of the representatives of the women’s shelter about these little things and to learn more about the work of the women’s shelter and the needs and wishes of the women in the shelter. Therefore, we decided to support the women’s shelter in its public relations work – and to draw attention to the important topic of violence and its long-term consequences.

Healthy Nutrition With Class 2000

Another topic that is close to our heart is the development of children. Especially in Corona times, this has often been neglected due to the closure of schools, kindergartens and social institutions. Therefore it was not difficult for us to say YES to the sponsorship of a third grade class within the support program called Class 2000.

With Class 2000, children learn the basics of healthy living in a playful way: Teachers and specially trained health promoters create 15 hours per school year that focus exclusively on health and life skills. Thus, in addition to all the theoretical knowledge, the students develop important skills to be able to cope with everyday life (even in crisis situations) in a healthy and satisfied way.

Sponsorship of Our Own Beehive and Support For Sweet Farm

Last but not least, we continued to pursue our focus on environmental protection and sustainability: As part of its CSR program, OTRS Group has sponsored its own beehive to support the important issue of there being a decreasing number of bee colonies. It is set up on the bee nature trail in the Ginnheimer Wäldchen KGV. Bees play an extremely important role in our ecosystem – and we have already tasted the honey from our own beehive.

This year, we were also able to support the Sweet Farm in California: The Sweet Farm is a non-profit initiative that addresses the global impact of factory farming on animals, plants and the planet. They rescue and rehabilitate farm animals from various circumstances within the food system. A wonderful way to support this important work is to invite one of the farm animals to a virtual meeting. . We tried this right away at a joint meeting of colleagues from our offices in the USA, Mexico and Brazil. It was a nice enrichment and a successful way to relax the meeting. At these so-called “goat-2-meetings,” participants can also get a short introduction to the farm and see the other animals virtually.

Also planned for this year was a large-scale garbage collection campaign in Oberursel, which we had to postpone until next year due to the corona measures.

Christmas Special With The Street Angels

Instead, we have started our next Christmas campaign with full force: Because the cooperation with the Street Angels was so successful last year we absolutely wanted to repeat the campaign. The Street Angel e.V. has made it its business to help people with low or no income and especially homeless people through public initiatives as well as practical and financial support. We have already called on employees to collect socks, scarves, hats, sweets, hygiene and care articles; we will hand these over to the association together with self-written poems to sweeten the Christmas season for homeless people a little bit. We are curious if we can surpass the 18 boxes of last year this year?

Full Speed Ahead For 2021

For 2021, we already have many other exciting CSR activities in mind. And even if Corona continues to restrict us, we will find creative ways to get involved.

Have you already planned CSR activities for next year? Which topic is close to your heart? We are eager to hear your input. By the way, if you’re still looking for ideas about what a CSR program could look like in your company, you can find our
CSR guide here.

We wish you all the best for 2021, and keep your fingers crossed that you can realize your social goals.