KPMG: Engaging staff to improve children’s sensory development and awareness

Year:

2013

Company Description:

KPMG is a leading provider of professional services in Ireland.  Our firm has 78 partners and 1800 people in offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast.  We provide clients in all sectors of Irish business with a range of Audit, Tax and Advisory services.  The cornerstones of our business are quality of advice, quality of service and quality of our people.

Business Issue:

The company wanted to provide opportunities for KPMG staff to make the most of their skills and energies while creating positive impact in surrounding communities. This is central to KPMG’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.

Solution Applied:

KPMG has built a strong relationship with St. Michael’s House over the last few years.  More recently, St. Michael’s House Home Teachers and Outreach Librarians approached KPMG about working together to develop a prototype for Multi‑Sensory Stories for Children with Intellectual Disability.  This is a new and innovative product stemming out of the need to improve the quality of story time of children in St. Michael’s House.

The Multi-Sensory Stories pack is an imaginative sensory developmental aid for young children with intellectual disabilities and their families. The aim of the pack is to improve children’s sensory development and awareness.

KPMG volunteers undertook training with St. Michael’s House to understand the learning difficulties of the children. They were briefed on how multi-sensory stories work and then they worked, either individually or in pairs, to write a story which incorporated sensory elements in each sentence.

KPMG volunteers from the Marketing department developed the logo and sourced a high quality, multi-functional box with a handle that had individual compartments to hold the various sensory items along with the laminated accompanying story.  Eventually a very professional and bespoke packaging option was sourced by the KPMG team.

Each pack contains specially written stories and a range of props that bring the story to life by touch, smell, sight and sound.  Parents can borrow a sensory story box from the library, like they would any other book.

Company Benefits:

When KPMG was approached about getting involved in this new and exciting idea, we immediately saw it as a real opportunity to have hands-on staff engagement in a long-term project that would have real benefits and make a lasting difference to the children in St. Michael’s House.

There is a huge demand from KPMG staff to have impactful community involvement volunteer opportunities.  Over 30 staff were involved in the process of writing stories, sourcing the sensory items and then we had a day-long packaging session with all volunteers assembling their stories together.

 Stakeholder Benefits:

St. Michael’s House provides a range of specialised services to over 1,663 children and adults with an intellectual disability and their families through 170 community based centres in the greater Dublin area. Their comprehensive programmes cover areas such as clinical therapies, special national schools, inclusive education, vocational training and employment support.

At the formal launch of the initiative on March 5, 2013, John Leonard, Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Michael’s House said:

“The Sensory Stories pack is a very important initiative and will greatly enhance our developmental work with young children.  We are delighted with KPMG’s invaluable involvement of this project, which allows parents to support their child’s development through interactive story telling.”

Solution Champion:

Karina Howley, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility.  Email: Karina.howley@kpmg.ie

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mTz-dUGH6lQ