Year One

Through collaboration with community organizations, our associates and Goodyear retirees help make our communities around the world better places to live and work. With that spirit in mind, Goodyear hosted its first Global Week of Volunteering in June 2017, with a goal to deploy the largest-ever number of associates to volunteer in their local communities. 

For this first-time effort, associates rose to the occasion. Approximately 1,252 Goodyear volunteers provided more than 6,000 volunteer hours through 69 events facilitated in six countries, totaling nearly $300,000 of value to non-profit organizations.

“Our first Week of Volunteering was an incredible success that brought our company’s approach toward giving back in our communities, Goodyear Better Future, to life,” said Joni Fitch, Goodyear’s Community Engagement communications manager. “Goodyear associates are the foundation of our company’s commitment to our communities and we are grateful for their contributions of time, skills and resources on behalf of Goodyear. We truly couldn’t have done it without them.”

The majority of volunteer activities occurred in Akron where more than 1,000 associates volunteered more than 5,000 hours through 12 non-profit organizations and professional development workshops. Twenty percent of those hours directly benefitted area youth through safety and STEM education programs with Akron Children’s Hospital, Boys & Girls Club of the Western Reserve, Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio, Akron Public Schools NIHF STEM Middle School and City of Akron Peacemakers. Goodyear volunteers engaged with students through STEM carnivals, career days, in-class lessons and at road safety events. 

Akron volunteers contributed more than 70 percent of their hours to sustainability projects, which included: repacking enough food at the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank to provide more than 33,000 meals to families in need; beautifying landmark areas of Akron, including Lock 2, with the Downtown Akron Partnership and Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition and completing nearly three-years-worth of maintenance work at the YMCA Camp Y-Noah. 

Skills-based projects included opportunities for non-profit organizations to participate in professional development workshops led by Goodyear associates. Goodyear volunteers also worked with the Red Cross of Summit, Portage and Medina Counties installing smoke alarms to improve home safety for at-risk populations. 

Year Two

Building on the success of our inaugural Global Week of Volunteering, in 2018 we set out to energize specific associate populations in year two. We focused on increasing engagement with Goodyear’s manufacturing and non-wired associates and amplifying the reach of the program across EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Globally, more than 2,000 Goodyear volunteers provided more than 9,100 hours of volunteer service in 22 locations around the world, totaling nearly $400,000 of value to the community. 

We created a toolkit to help associates around the world easily participate in the Global Week of Volunteering and saw more than a third of our participation from manufacturing locations.

"Our associates’ engagement in the second annual Global Week of Volunteering was nothing short of remarkable," said CEO Rich Kramer. "We are proud of our growth and we look forward to engaging even more associates and impacting more lives in the years ahead." 

In addition to the volunteer opportunities, Goodyear also hosted more than 400 local non-profit employees for professional development workshops in areas such as leadership development, diversity and inclusion and project management. These experiences align with Goodyear's emphasis on skills-based volunteerism, which leverages an individual's professional and leadership skills in a volunteer capacity.

Year Three

Volunteerism and community engagement have always been central to Goodyear’s culture, and our associates around the world are the ones who bring it to life. Goodyear’s third annual Global Week of Volunteering was May 30 – June 5.

We are collaborating with community partners around the world to offer a variety of engaging volunteer experiences for associates and their families. Our focus for 2019 continues to be growth in the number of Goodyear locations participating in the Global Week of Volunteering. From facilitating math challenges for students to serving lunch to those in need, there are many ways Goodyear serves the communities where we live and work. 

Goodyear associates renovated Camp Y Noah in Akron, Ohio, in partnership with the United Way of Summit County, during Goodyear's 2017 Global Week of Volunteering.