Taking community building to heart

By: 4 years ago

What makes a community?

For real estate leader SM Development Corporation (SMDC), it is not just the infrastructure that serves as a dwelling place for a group of residents. It is about creating a community where people co-exist in a home that allows them to live their best lives – healthily, happily, fruitfully, securely. The essence of community building, after all, lies in its impact on the lives of its people.

This impact is put to a test in the most trying of circumstances. This pandemic, for instance.

SMDC has proven its commitment to true community building with a program that has gone above and beyond to help not just its own, but beyond its own communities.

And award-giving bodies have been taking notice.

SMDC bagged merit awards in both CSR and community relations for its community programs, The Good Guys and HappyNings, respectively, at the 18^th Philippine Quill Awards held virtually last night. Presented by the International Association of Business Communicators Philippines, the awards honored 408 entries from professional and student communicators, which personified the Quill’s ‘global standards of excellent, effective and purposeful business communication.’

Earlier, the Good Guys community program received a Special Citation in CSR at the 2020 PropertyGuru Awards. Meanwhile, this is the second Quill for HappyNings, which won last year in the same category.

The Good Guys program was started in 2019 to foster community spirit, promote healthy lifestyles and develop secure and safe neighborhoods across SMDC developments.

At the onset of the pandemic and the subsequent quarantine, SMDC beefed up its The Good Guys program to mitigate the health risks posed by the pandemic and to address the needs of its communities.

The Good Guys learning assemblies, which used to be conducted every weekend in the SMDC properties, have taken on a new format and have introduced topics relevant to the times. A series of webinars touching on mental health, wellness, online safety, and entrepreneurship have been conducted regularly for the benefit of residents and other SMDC stakeholders.

In keeping with the health advocacy of The Good Guys, SMDC partnered with the Red Cross and SM Foundation to conduct a Health and Wellness Caravan in SMDC properties. The Caravan was intended to provide non-Covid health services to elderly and PWD residents and staff. To date, the Caravan has been in 12 properties. Living-alone elderlies and PWD residents have been provided with personal shopping services for their food and medicine needs. This initiative not only has helped the residents; motorcycle riders have also had an extra source of income doing essentials deliveries for the PWD and elderly residents.

SMDC went beyond its own communities to provide assistance to individuals displaced by the pandemic.

Around 26,000 local farmers benefitted from the Good Guys Weekend Market. The Market has provided a safe avenue for residents to purchase fresh produce. It has become a regular fixture at SMDC developments, servicing 15 properties around the Metro.

The Weekend Market was expanded into a Mercato, a business platform for more than 300 resident-entrepreneurs affected by the lockdown. These are overseas Filipino workers (OFW) forced to come home, business owners who had to close shop, laid off employees who needed a new source of income. SMDC allowed them to set up shop at the Weekend Market to be able to augment their family income.

Residents have donated blood in the Bloodletting program, a partnership with the Red Cross, Philippine Blood Center, and the Department of Health. More than 300 blood bags have so far been donated to the Department of Health for Covid-19 patients.

HappyNings, on the other hand, is another community program that provides opportunities for residents of various SMDC communities to come together in family-friendly activities that encourage residents to come out of their units, socialize and enjoy family fun days with other members of their communities.

The pandemic may have limited physical movements and on-the-ground HappyNings events, but it has not stopped SMDC from continuing its community-building programs. It provides continuous entertainment to its communities through Good Times with The Good Guys, Friday night virtual concerts featuring the country’s top OPM artists.#

To know more about these programs, log on to www.smdc.com

ADVT.