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Ford Expands Community Work into Richmond Area After Investing in New Sales Office (500)

Ford is expanding its community volunteering reach to the Richmond area after moving into its new Richmond office.

Volunteering is a core tenant of Ford’s community activity, and is one component of its commitment to Australia. This builds on the company’s commitment to Australia in other areas, such as the $300 million investment into R&D conducted in Australia this year and nearly $2 billion the past six years.

Ford’s national sales company team moved into their new offices in Richmond in July, opening up the opportunity for Ford to spread its longstanding volunteer program to different projects in the local Richmond area, with volunteers helping out at the nearby Abbotsford Convent.

The Abbotsford Convent, located two kilometres from the new office, is a great community initiative and a well-known historical landmark. On Friday, September 25, Ford will send a group of 40 volunteers to spend the day gardening and doing general maintenance around the convent grounds.

The site was once one of the largest convents in Victoria, but today the grounds and buildings are used as an educational, arts and cultural hub with community events held there regularly and a community classic radio station setting up a permanent home at the convent.

Later in the year, Ford will be sending a large volunteering group to the Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House (BANH). BANH is located in Richmond and was established to develop a strong and mutually supportive neighbourhood – by offering a place to meet community members for a range of social, recreational and educational activities and also developing programs for the needs of the local community.

Ford expands global volunteering

This year’s Global Week of Caring initiative has been extended to a full month to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the annual event.

With close to 30,000 global Ford volunteers working on 1,600 projects across six continents, Ford’s initiative this year is bigger than previous years. From helping children read, fighting hunger or delivering clean water, Ford volunteers will be present and working in more than 40 countries with over a million hours of contribution to community service.

To support these global efforts, Ford Australia will have more than 330 volunteers out in the local community in the Global Month of Caring – and even more volunteers spread throughout the rest of the year.

These volunteering programs present a great opportunity for Ford to establish themselves locally and build important relationships with surrounding companies and programs.

Ford investing more locally

Ford recently moved its national sales company to a new home in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb Richmond. Ford’s existing Broadmeadows’ facility has now become the Asia Pacific Product Development Centre and will continue to have a strong local and global role as an Engineering and Design Centre of excellence.

With around 1100 employees, the Broadmeadows campus will continue to design, engineer and test vehicles with leading quality, fuel economy, safety and smart technologies. These new investments in the local Victorian economy are in addition to the $300 million that the Asia-Pacific Product Development Centre is investing in 2015. Ford’s national sales company’s new home in Richmond is representative of the future of innovation in Australia.

By 2017 Ford will be the largest auto employer in the country, with approximately 1,500 product development, design and marketing employees located at Broadmeadows, Richmond and Ford’s Research and Development Centre in Geelong and Lara proving ground.