Partnership in action: how Citi is helping build young futures

Some partnerships show up in a spreadsheet. Others show up in person, in a classroom, in a bookshop packing boxes. This year, Citi Australia has done both.

At the heart of the relationship is the Citi Foundation's investment in Building Your Future Together which provides critical funding for BSL's youth employment program in Frankston, the Mornington Peninsula and Hume. Through the Global Innovation Challenge, Citi Foundation's US$500,000 commitment powers our Youth Development Coaches who work where young people already are - in schools and communities - building the kind of trust that turns into real pathways from education to employment. For young people who are disengaged from school, work or family support that is relationship-first scan be difference between falling through the cracks and finding a foothold.

But for Citi, this partnership hasn't stopped at a cheque.

Earlier this year Citi Australia CEO Mark Woodruff visited BSL's Fitzroy Thrive Hub for a strategic session with our Youth Advisors. Rather than a formal briefing, it became a genuine exchange. Mark shared his own career journey - the setbacks as well as the wins - and spent the session listening as much as talking. For young people navigating their own new and sometimes uncertain pathways hearing a CEO speak candidly about his path, and take their questions seriously, was a reminder that the people funding these programs are genuinely invested in the outcomes and their futures.

A few months later a group of Citi Australia staff swapped their desks for a day at Brotherhood Books in our Kensington warehouse sorting donations and packaging deliveries side-by-side with our volunteer team. This hands-on work and exactly the kind of experience that builds the real understanding where deep partnerships grow. Spending a day in the aisles of a BSL social enterprise gives corporate partners something a quarterly report can't: a felt sense of the scale and complexity of our work and impact that their support makes possible. We‘ve loved seeing such a strong personal connection to our purpose with Citi staff - turning many into our biggest advocates.

These moments, together - the funding, CEO showing up and the staff rolling up their sleeves - reflect what BSL looks for in a corporate partnership.

To find out more about corporate partnerships with BSL, please contact:

Heather Rendell
Corporate Partnerships Manager
Heather.Rendell@bsl.org.au
0490 290 242