Good Neighbours
Why Educational Communications is Essential to Building Presence in Your Community
“I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you!”
- Fred Rogers
Can business be a good neighbour?
When we created and launched a full-day youth education event at Canon Canada’s new headquarters, it was geared to demonstrating Canon’s commitment to the environment. President and CEO Ted Egawa took the stage in the final moments and announced, “Our doors are always open to you. You are our neighbours.”
Canon Canada’s spanking new LEED Gold-certified, white-finned brick of a building stands opposite an equally new housing community in Brampton. Canon was extremely proud of the environmental considerations that went into their building and it’s beautiful grounds, which were carefully planned over many years. Opening their doors was a natural way to communicate what they had accomplished.
And Canon Canada chose to reach into the community through creating a day of hands-on learning for youth.
We believe that a fundamental pillar of enacting community connection is youth education. Our experience has taught us that every business needs a youth engagement strategy as a meaningful way to connect with and support its community.
Youth crave experience of the real world. They want to know what you know.
Parents have told us repeatedly, “Don’t tell me; teach our kids, they will tell us.” And they do. Every year, Canon breaks down the walls by opening its doors to the next cohort of youth, and as a result, hundreds of new households learn more about Canon.
How do businesses have meaningful engagements with the communities in which they work, live and thrive?
You focus on what you believe. For Canon, this is Kyosei – “all people, regardless of race, religion and culture, harmoniously living and working into the future.” Our task was to turn a core belief into a profound experience.
We put youth through four interactive sessions and added local partnerships to make it happen: a conservation authority to explore the heathy habitat around the building; the water systems operator to help students investigate what goes down the drain; a wildlife awareness group offering real contact with the animals who share the habitat; and the building itself - what makes it so green?
Operating within a community means a company cannot have solid walls; it needs to have permeability. It is part of a community eco-system.
Youth education engages households in a memorable way. It helps youth know what you know. And it closes the loop on community. Businesses are closer to their community when the community knows the “why” of the business.
Ted Egawa told the audience that he experienced visiting a local business when he was young, where he learned what they did and why. It never left him. Communicating with communities is not an option. Communicating through youth education is fundamental to building community. And future CEOs.
