Community Engagement in Israel
ICL is involved in numerous community projects, working in cooperation with social and environmental organizations.
ICL operations in Israel are concentrated in the Negev region, and the Company strives to be a significant and influential force, initiating processes to create enhanced cooperation between industry, the environment and the community. ICL serves as a catalyst for social-environmental processes that foster social empowerment and strengthen local identity.
ICL Employees as Volunteers – To be Involved
ICL believes that good corporate citizenship requires personal involvement. As a result, the Company encourages and provides opportunities for its employees and managers to take an active role in both one-time and continuous volunteer endeavors. A major part of the volunteer work is at the expense of work hours – mainly during ICL’s annual Global Volunteering Week, held in 2019 for the first time (see specific volunteering activities in the interactive map on this page). Additional individual volunteering is conducted throughout the year, in the afternoons (not during working hours) in educational, social and environmental organizations.
ICL considers its first annual Global Volunteering Week as highly successful and plans to hold it annually. One of the signs of this success was the sharp increase in other, continuous volunteering activities following the event – including many employees who were not previously interested in organized volunteering activities by the company.
The combined effect resulted in a very significant increase in the rate of volunteerism at ICL.
The proportion of ICL Israel’s workforce that participated in any company-organized volunteering activities leapt from 14% in 2018 to 49% in 2019 – almost half of all Israeli employees. The average number of volunteer hours by an ICL employee in Israel also jumped, from 4 hours in 2018 to 9.2 hours in 2019.
ICL and its employees will continue to further expand these unique, global activities to strengthen the contribution to our respective communities.
Employees’ children working in the community
ICL is proud to support this initiative in which teenagers of the Company’s employees (high school graduates) sign up for paid work at community non-profit organizations, mainly welfare, in Negev towns, while also providing them with a significant opportunity to learn about and serve the community. Such employment opportunities are usually offered during summer vacation in educational, social and environmental organizations. ICL pays the children’s “salaries” for working at the various non-profit organizations.
This initiative proved to be an enriching and meaningful learning experience for the teenagers, providing them with an important opportunity to learn and to serve the community. The initiative is also beneficial for the different community non-profits.
In 2019, 387 teenagers of ICL’s employees were employed in various community initiatives. The project included a total of 4,496 workdays, or 34,755 work hours by the teenagers. The total project cost for ICL was approximately 441,000 USD (this cost is excluded from the donations figure reported in the global part of this chapter).
Helping with arising community needs of the COVID-19 crisis
2020 brought about a global crisis, unprecedented in modern times, in the form of the COVID-19 virus, along with its significant health and economic repercussions. The crisis created new and immediate needs in the various communities in which ICL operates, including in southern Israel, and required the Company to act swiftly and flexibly in an attempt to assist members of the communities with various needs.
In the years prior to the crisis, ICL’s flagship created a stable infrastructure of partners in the Negev communities that engaged in a wide array of collaborations that fostered mutual trust. This network of partners swiftly launched several new initiatives to address needs arising from the COVID crisis. ICL issued a call for proposals through its partners, inviting the general public, municipal authorities and social organizations operating in the Negev to propose initiatives encouraging solidarity between populations in a time of social distancing.
ICL will invest ILS 100,000 in executing the selected initiatives. Each one will be awarded a grant of ILS 5,000 to execute their project. The Company is accompanying the process from the initial stage of studying the communities’ needs, through counseling and working with entrepreneurs implementing the various initiatives, as well as follow up and feedback on conclusion of the project.
To date, over 100 proposals have been received from throughout southern Israel, from Ashdod to Eilat.
Examples of projects launched:
- Inclusive online activities, such as creative craft activities in the various communities.
- Distribution of a thousand craft kits for toddlers, including in dispersed Bedouin settlements.
- Providing aids for at-home activities with children on the autistic spectrum who do not currently receive regular care.
- Distribution of activity kits to foster inclusiveness among family members: creation of food trays for birds; woodworking kits distributed to homes with an activity plan; and a unique application for family games.
- Elderly-oriented activities: book club, distribution of neighborhood leaflets; greeting cards and flowers on the holidays.
- Inclusive community activity: community holiday celebrations; preparation of joint community crafts.
As ICL is now adjusting to operating in the new COVID-19 ‘normal’, and the Company is supporting a safe and healthy return to work. All ICL facilities were equipped with personal protection equipment and informational pamphlets. The Company has also sent masks to all its employees and retired employees to help them keep healthy and safe.
ICL’s activities to confront the COVID-19 pandemic span the globe.
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