2,500 GM Employees Volunteer in Detroit’s Cody Rouge Community

teamGM Cares transforms neighborhood in partnership with community

DETROIT| Aug 16, 2016

Thousands of GM employees are donating their time and talent to board up vacant homes, clean empty lots, spruce up streets and tackle other neighborhood and school improvements throughout Detroit’s Cody Rouge community. Starting yesterday, the week-long transformation will culminate at an Employee and Community Family Fun Day, where employee volunteers will distribute backpacks filled with school supplies to neighborhood children. Employee volunteers assembled these backpacks earlier in June, during the GM-sponsored service project at the Points of Light Conference on Volunteering and Service at Detroit’s Cobo Center.

The driving force behind these service projects is teamGM Cares, a company-wide volunteerism initiative involving GM employees at all levels that is partnering with the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance (CRCAA), Cody High School and other corporations.

The CRCAA and residents have been working with GM and The Skillman Foundation on a months-long project to determine the community’s needs and develop plans. “Our organization has been working for 10 years to create a strong, sustainable community for residents and businesses,” says Kenyetta Campbell, CRCAA executive director. “We are excited to partner with GM to help amplify our work.”

GM’s improvements to Cody High will include a concession stand, fitness park, dugout, soccer field, pavilion and a complete field cleaning.

“GM’s employees made great progress two years ago and now we are returning to work with residents and community leaders to create a safer, sustainable neighborhood where families and businesses can thrive,” said Heidi Magyar, director of GM Community Outreach.

Other partners working with GM in Cody Rouge include Quicken Loans, DTE Energy, The Skillman Foundation, PwC, Roncelli, Inc., and Oak Pointe Church. Their projects will include:

  • Quicken Loans: Employee volunteers will clean and paint boarded-up vacant structures and renovate the walking path at Rouge Park
  • DTE Energy: Deploying DTE Care Force employee volunteers to support board-up efforts by clearing trees, assessing utilities and service reliability and by planting new trees in the neighborhood
  • The Skillman Foundation: Providing logistical support to all employee volunteers
  • PwC: Cleaning and painting at Cody High School
  • Roncelli, Inc.: Project management oversight
  • Oak Pointe Church: Strong partner of Cody High School providing onsite support

General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM, its subsidiaries and joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at www.gm.com.

About Points of Light

Points of Light – the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service – inspires, equips and mobilizes millions of people to take action that is changing the world. Through affiliates in 250 cities across more than 30 countries and partnerships with thousands of nonprofits and corporations, Points of Light engages 4 million volunteers in 30 million hours of service each year. Every year, Points of Light convenes the Conference on Volunteering and Service, the world’s largest service-related convening of nonprofit, government, business and civic leaders. For more information, go to www.pointsoflight.org.

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