Community

getting-it-together

While the firm has developed its own community programs built around reconciliation, staff are encouraged to propose projects for the firm’s support each year through the Getting it Together Program.

Applications for community partnerships for 2009/2010 are currently before our CSR Steering Committee.

In 2008, Gilbert + Tobin worked in partnership with two programs:

  • Football United – a program which uses football as ‘social glue’ to provide young people and their families who arrive on refugee and humanitarian visas with a new Australian community to call home. We are proud to support Football United through:
    • staff participation at Saturday training and playing days
    • fundraising and administrative support
    • the provision of pro bono legal services.
  • Well Suited / City Job Futures – a personal clothing and support service developed at Gilbert + Tobin and delivered in partnership with Job Futures for women job seekers provided by women already in the workforce. Gilbert + Tobin staff participated by providing:
    • professional clothing
    • personal support and mentoring
    • career coaching to assist women successfully re-enter the workforce or gain their first job in Sydney’s CBD.

Support for community organisations

We are focused on being a part of positive social change through collaboration and partnerships rather than by simply giving money away.

However, we have some longstanding commitments of which we are proud.

Gilbert + Tobin invests in innovative thinking about the shape of Australian society. We were a founding partner of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the University of New South Wales we help to shape the law in Australia. The Centre plays a prominent, independent role in public debate on issues vital to Australia’s future including Bills of Rights, the reconciliation process and native title, and the challenges of responding to terrorism.

Gilbert + Tobin also supports a range of community organisations through a mixture of firm-auspiced and staff-initiated events and fundraisers. We are committed to leaving enough room in our workplace for our staff to bring causes about which they are passionate to work to raise money or awareness in community with their colleagues.

Annually, our Trivia Night raises funds that have been directed by staff to a variety of organisations over the years including:

  • Habitat for Humanity
  • the Smith Family
  • Youth Off the Streets
  • the Burma Foundation to support victims of Cylcone Nargis

And following a bumper Trivia Night in 2009:

  • to our pro bono client, the Tangentyere Council to support literacy programs in community centres in town camps around Alice Springs.

And each year, our staff have the option of foregoing a present from the firm and donating its value to a community organisation. The firm matches the contribution of staff. Our Christmas giving appeals have supported the Redfern Legal Centre to appoint a community liaison officer to address family violence, and Mudgin-gal Aboriginal Women’s Centre and Tribal Warrior to host Family Days on the Block in Redfern.