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→Team Building Globally, Serving Locally
Each year since 2008, thousands of Google employees 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.
Examples of GoogleServe projects:
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 of employees, all Googlers are invited to participate in projects of their choice - on company time. Typically, Google does all of the planning and arrangement and provides transportation, meals, materials, and equipment for the volunteers.
Google has a wealth 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.
Yet GoogleServe builds the team spirit in a special way. "I'm painting a senior center in my town, interacting in a new way with folks I sit near Monday through Friday, and meeting some I've never met whose desks in a different Google building," said one Googler. "And while I'm spilling paint on my GoogleServe t-shirt, I know that around the world, 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."
*http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/googleserve-2010-celebrating-community.html
*http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/googleserve-thinking-globally-and.html
--[[User:Jana Zvibleman|jana.zvibleman]] ([[User talk:Jana Zvibleman|talk]]) 10:11, 20 November 2013 (PST)
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