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Citizenship and Sustainability

AT&T Cares

AT&T Cares is a comprehensive volunteer initiative designed to encourage employees to get engaged in community service that is meaningful to them and their communities, to create change and to stay engaged.

Launched in July 2009, AT&T Cares fits employees’ lifestyle and community service needs by promoting individual, group, and companywide volunteerism efforts by providing comprehensive and flexible volunteerism options and tools.

AT&T's main company volunteerism initiatives are in response to an employee survey that identified key areas that are most important to AT&T employees. The focus areas of highest importance include education, social services, and the environment. These interest areas directly relate to the current company volunteerism initiatives of:

To gather input and advice from employees, the company has established the AT&T Cares Council made up of one representative, or “Volunteer Ambassador”, from each Business Unit. The mission of the council is to oversee the launch and evolution of the AT&T Cares initiative, ensure departments are involved, and that the platform is engaging to employees.

AT&T Cares has also teamed up with YourCause.com to encourage employees to take advantage of a new web-based volunteerism tool that enables them to create their own personalized charity Web pages. The goal is to help employees raise awareness among their family and friends and increase donations to the causes of their choice.

This new initiative continues to build on AT&T’s excellent service record of giving back to the community and the commitment of its enthusiastic employees who have made community service a way of life.

AT&T Pioneers ... Dedicated and Strong

Each year, approximately 325,000 of our employees and retirees volunteer time to enhance their communities by taking part as AT&T Pioneers, one of the largest industry-sponsored volunteer organizations in the country. AT&T Pioneers is part of the national Pioneers organization, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization comprised of local chapters of volunteer members who are dedicated to serving those in need. These employees and retirees are dedicated to affecting immediate, tangible change in our local communities through grassroots projects and programs. In 2008, the AT&T Pioneers donated more than 10.3 million hours of personal time to community outreach activities — worth more than $202.8 million.

The AT&T Pioneers have been involved in a nation-wide effort with nonprofit Share Our Strength to address the issue of childhood hunger in America. View more on this exciting initiative.

Supporting AT&T's Aspire initiative, the AT&T Pioneers lead the local implementation of the AT&T/JA Worldwide Job Shadow Initiative. This involves bringing 100,000 students to AT&T workplaces over five years. Through this program, our employees are able to give those students an opportunity to see, firsthand, the types of job skills they will need to be successful in the future.

In addition to AT&T Aspire, AT&T Pioneers support the advancement of education through other projects including:

  • The Dictionary Project, which distributes thousands of dictionaries to students.
  • Project: Connect, which provides teachers with online video games that enable students to have fun while learning about technologies such as e-mail, compression, fiber optics, cable, satellite, cellular and VoIP.
  • Power Up to Read, which delivers an engaging multimedia reading program to help students improve reading comprehension, build enthusiasm for reading and develop essential technology skills.
Responding in Times of Need

When Disaster Strikes

When Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands of people, AT&T Pioneers were on the front lines helping them:

  • Make their first critical phone calls to loved ones at AT&T phone banks.
  • Set up voice mailboxes so that evacuees could begin to rebuild their lives.
  • By providing more than 1,000 backpacks and school supplies to children in shelters.
  • By volunteering for the “Shelter From the Storm: a Concert for the Gulf Coast” telethon at 10 AT&T Call Centers, raising more than $1 million.
  • By donating close to $200,000 to the Pioneer Disaster Fund.

Support for Our Troops

  • Working with the Freedom Calls Foundation, AT&T and the AT&T Pioneers connected hundreds of troops serving in Iraq with their family members to talk via a video online chat session.
  • Since 2003, the AT&T Pioneers have placed a special focus on supporting our troops. Pioneers packaged and sent out more than 5,000 care packages to troops in Iraq.
  • In 2005 on Veterans Day, the AT&T Pioneers saluted our armed forces at ceremonies across the country.
  • AT&T Pioneers also conducted similar ceremonies to commemorate 9/11, Hospitalized Veterans Week, Memorial Day and Independence Day.
  • AT&T Pioneers have teamed up with AT&T Long Distance to provide free calling cards, connecting veterans in VA hospitals and nursing homes, as well as current military personnel, with their families.

Learn More

Advancing Education

One of the newest initiatives is Project: Connect, which is designed to teach students how the technologies they use each day work. Pioneers provide teachers with online video games that enable students to have fun while learning about technologies such as e-mail, compression, fiber optics, cable, satellite, cellular and VoIP. In 2006, Pioneers expect to reach thousands of classrooms throughout the country.

Since 1960, the Talking Book Repair program has brought the joy of the printed word to those who cannot see. Each year, AT&T Pioneers refurbish more than 135,000 special cassette- and record–playing machines. More than 2 million have been refurbished to date.

Addressing Community Needs

AT&T Pioneers donate and deliver hundreds of food baskets to area food banks for families in need.

Since 1997, AT&T Pioneers have worked with Habitat for Humanity International, building homes across the country.