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== Team Building Globally, Bond Serving Locally ==
Each year since 2008, thousands of Google employees help have helped serve their communities as part of GoogleServe, an employee-driven initiative organized almost entirely by volunteers. Through partnerships with nonprofits and schools, Googlers from 119 cities in 36 countries help communities in need with projects ranging from educating youth about online bullying to cleaning up local rivers and parks.
"Giving back to our communities strengthens our connections with the places in which we live and work. And it also brings us closer together as a global team," says Seth Marbin, GoogleServe Global Leader [Marbin is also the founder and lead of Teampedia]. Each year the event has grown in size and scope.
* At the Punjabi Bagh Central Market area in West Delhi, Googlers cleaned and removed old, decayed posters with the help of “Lets do it Delhi,” an organization which has taken up the initiative to minimize abuse of public property.
GoogleServe is the company's annual focus of volunteer efforts, yet service is encouraged year round. While the philanthropy is coordinated by a core team . . . Positions include . . . Tasks include . .. Employees of employees, all Googlers are invited, but not required, to volunteer for participate in projects of their choice - on company time. . each team . . . Typically, Google does all of the planning and arrangement and provides transportation, meals, materials, and equipment for the volunteers . . considered part of their work (not vacation time) . .
one time Google has a year / ongoingwealth of other team building opportunties. Celebrations include retreats at Disneyland, fairs designed for the children of employees, and formal adult parties. Staff can join together onsite for meditation and yoga classes, hear inspirational speakers, and participate in life-enriching trainings.
Comments by volunteers - "We enjoy Google parties and Google retreats at Disneyland and xx, but Yet GoogleServe is builds the strongest experience for helping us get to know each other and xx - after a team volunteering effortspirit in a special way. "I'm painting a senior center in my town, interacting in a new way with folks I xxxsit near Monday through Friday, and meeting some I've never met whose desks in a different Google building," says xxx . said one Googler. "And while I'm spilling paint on my GoogleServe has lead tot-shirt, inspiredI know that around the world, xxx add 3 Googleserve photos Googlers wearing the same shirt are shoveling debris, or teaching a teen, or fixing a wagon. We're all helping out together. I like the feeling."
Read more about GoogleServe: