Business Impact Stories

Texas Health Resources Partners with CFT4B to Find Projects That Represent Its Employees

“We want our employees to see themselves in our community service projects,” was the vision that Felicia Williams, program director of Community Affairs at Texas Health Resources (Texas Health) shared with CFT4B’s Sejal Desai when they met to create a strategic plan for Texas Health’s employee volunteering program. Texas Health came to Communities Foundation of Texas for Business (CFT4B) in 2017 to expand its existing Community Time Off (CTO) program that allows employees to use company time to volunteer in their community.

CFT4B was able to meet several of Texas Health’s desires through one community-wide event: CFT’s annual Freedom Day. As a member of CFT4B, Texas Health employees participated in the 17^th annual Freedom Day, which is a day of service to honor the lives lost and forever changed on 9/11. More than 150 Texas Health employees used their CTO hours to volunteer during Freedom Day at five different nonprofit organizations: Arlington Life Shelter, Equest, Mission Arlington, North Texas Food Bank and Tarrant Area Food Bank. “Our partnership with CFT4B has helped diversify our volunteer service opportunities,” said Felicia Williams, program director of Community Affairs. CFT4B offers a wide variety of service projects that appeal to many different Texas Health employees from all types of backgrounds, cultures and experiences, she added.
 
Each project reflected a different cause or geography close to the Texas Health teammates’ hearts:
 
Veterans:
Freedom Day offered Texas Health the opportunity to engage veteran employees in causes that reflect themselves. Ken Huckaby, senior director, ITS Technology Operations at System Services and proud Army veteran gave his time to sort produce at the North Texas Food Bank's new warehouse in Plano. "Giving back to the community has always been a large part of military service as well as the service of Texas Health. It is great when I get a chance to do things that recognize my career in the Army as well as the one at Texas Health, said Huckaby, “I enjoy volunteering with both my fellow co-workers and fellow members of the military. It is always enjoyable and amazing to see how much impact we can make in such a small timeframe. Knowing that we touched 2,550 families in just a few hours truly shows the power that we can all make by giving a small portion of our time,” added Huckaby.
 
Faith:
Texas Health employees also volunteered at Mission Arlington. "Mission Arlington does so much for people in Arlington. It was a real honor for our faith-based organization at Texas Health Arlington to serve another faith-based organization in Arlington,” said Blake Kretz, President of Texas Health Arlington Memorial.