These are some of our community relations activities from 2007.

Charity of the Year
At Heathrow we launched our first ever charity of the year partnership in response to a call from staff to give them one common project which would facilitate team-working, building relationships and raising money for a strongly supported local cause. Marie Curie Cancer Care was chosen in a staff vote with a campaign called ‘Destination: 5000 hours of care’, aiming to raise £100,000 for local cancer nursing.

The partnership was launched in August and since then we have run a range of fundraising activities including quiz nights and a Christmas Family Fun Day for the local community. By the end of 2007 we had already raised £56,000. We have integrated our partnership with our business objectives – for example in order to attract volunteers to the Terminal 5 proving trials, BAA donated £1 for every one of our volunteers, which raised £15,000 in total.

Colnbrook Community Partnership
The Colnbrook Community partnership was set up during the construction of Terminal 5 to address issues of local concern, and to bring local stakeholders (the Colnbrook Parish Council, Slough Borough Council, the Residents Association, Groundwork Thames Valley and local businesses) together to work on projects to improve the local environment. BAA currently chairs the partnership. 

In 2007 the partnership secured funding from Grundon, Slough Borough Council and BAA to build a multi-use games area in Pippins Park. The games area was opened with a community football event in October and has since been widely used by the local community. A second phase of enhancement is planned for 2007, in addition to other projects in the local area.

Terminal 5 charity
With the opening of Terminal 5 in March 2008, 2007 was the last year of operation for the T5 Charity which made its final donations in November 2007. The T5 Charity supported local projects in the immediate vicinity of the Terminal 5 site, including a donation to organisations of importance to T5 staff – such as Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust. The charity has given away a total of over £300,000 since it began in 2002.

BAA Communities Trust
BAA has its own charity, the BAA Communities Trust. It was established in 1996, receives 0.15% of BAA’s pre-tax profits each year and has donated more than £4 million in grants in its first ten years. This year the Trust supported a number of projects around Heathrow: 

VSO Global Xchange
This enabled nine young volunteers from Bangladesh aged 18-25 to join nine British volunteers to work with local organisations in Hounslow on community projects for three months from September 2007. The whole team then returned to Bangladesh in December to carry out a further three months of community work.

Through this programme BAA (working with VSO, CSV and the British Council) helped to support overseas development and tackle areas of need in the communities around the airport. At the same time the scheme gives young people in the UK the opportunity – through aviation and travel – to work overseas and develop themselves. BAA Communities Trust invested £75,000 in the programme, matched pound for pound by the Government-funded youth volunteering charity ‘v’.

Bedfont Community Centre
In 2007 the Trust gave funds to develop a community centre in an area of deprivation and provide recreational facilities to a range of local groups. In addition to the support from the Trust, engineers at Terminal 5 provided pro bono consultancy. The centre is due to open in 2008.

Education
We continue to offer a dedicated education website ‘Take Off and Learn’ for teachers and students. This provides learning resources, including literacy games and an interactive resource for GCSE IT students. The site also informs young people about the training and skills programmes available at our airports.

www.baa.com/learn

Internship Programme
In 2007 we trialled an internship programme in partnership with Thames Valley University. Nine students on the Airline Relations and Airline Management course spent six weeks in placements throughout the business and took part in shared learning sessions covering a range of airport topics. Eight of these students went on to secure placements for a year in industry in the third year of the course. Thames Valley University reported that the experience gained on the BAA programme made an important contribution to the ability of the students to secure these placements.

Sustainability in schools
In spring 2008 we ran a sustainability in schools programme with five local secondary schools, delivered in partnership with Green Corridors. The aim of this programme was to work with local students to explore issues around sustainability in the built environment.

Using our resource management techniques in our terminals as an illustrative example we worked with students to audit energy and resource use at their schools and enable them to come up with an action plan. Ideas included a walk to school day, composting of school waste, a recycling programme and a campaign to cut down on energy use.

Issues and approach
Our plans