This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.
Horizon champions socially responsible change internally and externally, encouraging other companies to follow suit by speaking to the potential for companies, regardless of size, to give by leveraging collaborative partnerships and employee engagement.
One of Horizon’s most profound partnerships is with the Perspectives/IIT Math and Science Academy (MSA), a school in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago which embraces the idea of educating the whole child. Since launching the partnership in 2016, Horizon has provided it’s profit and time in infrastructure and programming support, as well as over 1,000 hours of employee volunteering.
To date, infrastructure projects have included the installation of water filtration stations to eliminate exposure to lead-contaminated drinking water, constructing a central front office to increase student safety, and creating a peace and meditation room for students to decompress from environmental stressors and practice healthy coping skills.
Horizon’s financial support has also enabled a number of new programs and curriculum to be available for students, exposing them to new ideas and potential career paths. With these programs, Horizon employees generously contribute their time. Employees mentor students through programming with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition STEM Challenge, as well as Horizon’s own STEM career speaker series. Students not only hear about various STEM career trajectories from employees, but also have the opportunity to interview the employees participating in the speaker series, developing their public speaking and leadership skills. As MSA reflects Horizon’s core business values, Horizon recognizes the potential to draw from the next generation of STEAM oriented innovators it is currently investing in.
Horizon’s various business units (BUs) also integrate volunteer events at MSA. The BUs have set up equipment, organized hygiene and college kits for students in temporary living situations (STLS), presented interactive chemistry workshops to classrooms and conducted mock interviews.
Because our employees show up for our community partners, such as MSA, Horizon was able to became one of the first biopharma companies to take the 1% Pledge, joining over 6,000+ companies in over 100 countries. Horizon views the components of the pledge as a means to realizing its CSR mission of going to incredible lengths to positively impact the communities in which we live and work.
