Special Report: Olivia Business Centre – Community work and social initiatives
Large, multi-tenanted business centres have the critical mass and day-time population size to become a large and cohesive community of people and engaging that community has been one of Olivia Business Centre’s key corporate objectives.
A series of initiatives has ensured that staff of occupier companies engage with each other and with the wider community in Tri-City and beyond.
Among these initiatives is the Olivia mentoring programme, under which experienced business people support teenagers who are considering their future career before leaving school.
“Often, it is only during meetings with mentors that they realise the importance of the right choice of studies, participation in internship programmes and the appropriate selection of additional activities that will allow them to enter adulthood,” says Marta Moksa, managing director of O4 Coworking.
Olivia has become the heart of the three mentoring programmes being provided in the Tri-City area: the Grade is aimed at boys aged 13 to 19; the Avenue targets young high school students and is aimed exclusively at girls and mentors are all women. Meanwhile, the Career Accelerator, run by Martyna Czarnobaj-Borowska from O4 Coworking, headquartered in Olivia Business Centre, is aimed at developing social competence through participation in workshops, training and meetings with mentors, coaches or business people who run their own companies.
Other initiatives designed to promote a sense of community include the Olivia Business Centre Business Awards. In the 2020 awards 46 projects were submitted in three categories: Olivia Pro Bono, Olivia Business, and Olivia Global, plus a Grand Prix won in this instance by Polish ventilation and air conditioning unit manufacturer VTS Group.
“The awards celebrated occupiers’ most important projects in 2020,” says Bogusław Wieczorek from Olivia Business Centre. “We wanted to honour the initiatives and projects carried out by companies operating in Olivia, and promote them in the difficult period of the pandemic.”
Olivia has also been involved with several social initiatives, including the reconstruction of an avenue of trees along the main Tri-City artery, providing food deliveries for health professionals during the health crisis, organising food supplies for food banks, providing a covid testing centre, as well as collecting surplus computer equipment for students undertaking online lessons who are at risk of educational exclusion.
