In June 2019, our entire company once again united to raise funds for Beacon Foundation, our corporate community partner through Light the Way. The fundraising initiative provides not only much-needed funds, but also raises  awareness of our work to alleviate youth disengagement and unemployment through our partnership, a prevalent issue in many of our communities. 

The initiative saw all six corporate offices and 47 of our centres participating to deliver a range of activities to raise funds for and awareness of the amazing work achieved through our partnership with Beacon.

Centre level activities covered a range of consumer and retailer facing initiatives including, barbeques and bake sales, gold coin donations, raffles, silent auctions, carnivals and kids activities, and selling Light the Way branded reusable shopping bags.

At our corporate offices we held a raffle for Vicinity team members and various gold coin donation activities. The Loop Café at our Chadstone National Office also participated in the initiative by donating a percentage of proceeds from sales towards the campaign for a week. 

Thanks to the generosity of our retailers, consumers and our people, we raised over $37,000 for Beacon.

We are thrilled that these funds will help Beacon provide further support to young people in some of our most disadvantaged communities.

Through Light the Way fundraising initiative, we raised over $37,000 for Beacon Foundation.

To demonstrate our acknowledgement of and respect for the Traditional Owners, the Bunurong people, Bayside Centre commissioned ‘Flower Girl’ on an external wall of the centre.

The mural celebrates the Bunurong people and Indigenous flora native to the local region. ‘Flower Girl’ aims to highlight the importance of creating a sense of place for Indigenous locals, making Vicinity centres more relevant to the regions in which we operate.

While the mural was months in the making, during National Reconciliation week 2019, Bunurong elder, Mick conducted a smoking ceremony to officially unveil the artwork.

In January 2019 we unveiled a global first clear solar glass trial at Warwick Grove in Western Australia. Developed with smart technology partners, ClearVue Technologies, the new clear solar glass atrium harvests solar energy to generate clean, renewable power and is also transparent, making it perfect for use where standard window glass is normally used.

Generation results from the trial have been positive with the atrium creating enough clean energy to power lighting, signage and a display screen in the immediate area of the centre.

Looking ahead for Vicinity, our roof and car park solar installations will eventually reach capacity so this cutting-edge clear solar glass technology has great potential for future shopping centre and mixed-use developments to help us meet our renewable energy and carbon reduction objectives.

 Global first clear solar glass trial at Warwick Grove (WA)

This year Mandurah Forum removed plastic straws for good.

In February 2019, all food and beverage retailers at the centre switched from plastic straws to paper straws, helping to improve environmental practices at the centre. By September 2019, we estimate that we have avoided approximately 350,000 straws from going to landfill since the initiative commenced.

Centre Manager Jacqueline McKenzie said, “This change helps Mandurah Forum reduce its impact on the environment,”

“We’re lucky to have progressive and socially-conscious retailers who supported this initiative to help us eliminate plastic straws from the centre”, Ms McKenzie said.

To support retailers in the first month of the transition, Mandurah Forum provided paper straws to food and beverage retailers.The paper straws were sustainably-sourced, recyclable and carbon neutral. Our retailers remain committed to the program and are now sourcing their own paper straws.

Retailers now using paper straws at Mandurah Forum (WA)

YMCA Rebuild is a social enterprise that helps rehabilitate at-risk youth leaving correctional facilities by providing training and employment skills to support their integration into the workforce.

YMCA ReBuild help young people learn new skills and provide supervised on the job training and support to securing regular employment. In FY8 and FY19 Vicinity spent almost $600,000 with YMCA Rebuild in maintenance, landscaping and repairs.

Over the past twelve months YMCA ReBuild provided 120 young people with the skills they need to gain employment on release from prison into the community and 30 young men and women with direct employment opportunities.

Partnering with YMCA ReBuild to provide basic maintenance and landscaping services at our centres aligns with our community investment program focus on alleviating youth disengagement and unemployment in local communities. It is this strategic alignment that provides credibility and longevity to our partnership.

"Thanks to our partnership, with Vicinity, over the past year we have provided 21 young people with training and work experience and 7 young people have secured ongoing employment. Most importantly, the young people we work with have significantly lower rates of re-offending and successfully rejoining the community." Damien Carmody, YMCA ReBuild Manager

To support our team members to achieve their goals, this year we introduced an on-site coach to provide a wide range of services including coaching, counselling, self-care and personal and professional support.

The on-site coach provides team members with easily accessible pathways to manage their wellbeing and to help our people achieve their goals and overcome issues in both their personal and professional lives.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the on-site coach in FY19, we have increased the number of counsellors available to two and increased the number of sessions available for team members.

Mental health talks by AFL Premiership player, Wayne Schwass

This year we increased our focus on mental wellbeing. We introduced the Optimal Health & Wellbeing Program, an eight week face-to-face program to empower team members to take ownership of their mental health and overall wellbeing.

We worked to increase mental health awareness through a series of mental health talks from AFL Premiership player, Wayne Schwass as well as increasing the mindfulness resources available to our team members such as learning programs, access to apps and coaching. We also introduced Resilience workshops and this year, 91 team members attended these to increase their resilience skills and strategies.