Our corporate volunteering activities in the past year covered a broad spectrum of areas.
We launched this program back in 2013 to enable us to also contribute to society through corporate volunteering. Since then, we have provided our 2,400 employees with the opportunity to spend time doing voluntary work for a good cause.
Over 700 of our employees have already taken advantage of this opportunity and donated their time to organizations like Caritas, Hilfswerk, Lebenshilfe, Soma, Wiener Tafel and the Austrian Red Cross. The tremendous response prompted management to significantly expand our corporate volunteering program from 2018 onwards: our staff can now spend up to five days each year on full pay volunteering for social and charitable organizations.
Cooking in s'Häferl
s’Häferl was founded in 1988 by the evangelical prison counselor Gerlinde Horn. Originally intended as a day center for members of marginalized groups – in particular ex-convicts and day-release prisoners – s’Häferl now extends a warm welcome to anyone in need of a hearty meal.
Since 2012, employees of the Casinos Austria and Austrian Lotteries Group have been helping to prepare food in s’Häferl – and also donating the food to do so. In 2017, 70 volunteers from the group cooked at s’Häferl on nine evenings throughout the year, including our Director General Alexander Labak, who enthusiastically rolled up his sleeves and got cooking.
Since 2009, Casino Velden has been a member of the Verantwortung zeigen! (“Demonstrate Responsibility”) network and has been actively helping to achieve social cohesion. Activities like planting an herb garden for the de la Tour welfare organization’s Meierei shelter or accompanying its clients on a trip to the local Christmas market were just two such events on the casino’s calendar in 2017. Verantwortung zeigen! is a network of companies and organizations in the south of Austria that demonstrate their social responsibility in a range of projects and dialog across the region.
>> It is really something quite special when we sit here around the table. The warmth we feel here and our work together as genuine partners are hard to describe in words. Over the years, we’ve developed a relationship of deep trust and familiarity – a relationship that gives our clients security and releases so much positive energy. We might not at first glance appear to have anything in common with the management team at the casino, yet we really are inextricably linked. They make us feel that all people are human beings, and that we are truly welcome here. << Michael Puck, Head of the Meierei Shelter
>> For us, our work with the Meierei is a welcome and very special break from our everyday roles, an escape from our routine, and a chance to slow down and reflect. All the more so in the run-up to Christmas when everything gets even more hectic. << Othmar Resch, Director, Casino Velden
