At Maurice Blackburn, we believe in honesty and fairness, a commitment to social justice and the rights of working people.
Community involvement has always been a part of the firm's heritage. To give structure and focus to our commitment in this area, we developed a corporate social responsibility program. It involves volunteering, pro bono work, participation in community and fundraising events, and corporate giving.
Focused efforts
Each of our offices has chosen a specific organisation to support, based on research that showed our staff are particularly keen to help homeless people, people with disabilities, refugees and youth at risk. For each of these organisations, we provide financial assistance, volunteers and support in the areas they find most useful.
The firm is currently working with the following organisations around Australia.
- Hanover Homeless Shelter - Melbourne www.hanover.org.au
- Scope - Dandenong www.scopevic.org.au
- Lemongrove Lodge - Sydney www.mission.com.au
- Refugee Claimant Support Centre - Brisbane www.refugees.org.au
- Anan Cara Respite Care - Geelong
A generous team
Our staff regularly participate in community activities in their own time. These activities include support of the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre skiing events, and Bicycle Victoria fundraising activities such as the Around the Bay in a Day and Murray to Moyne bike races.
Maurice Blackburn staff also contribute to other fundraising events during the year including:
- Jeans for Genes Day
- SIDS for Kids Red Nose Day
- Daffodil Day
- Australia's Biggest Morning Tea
- LIV Charity Fun Run
- Movember (raising money for men's health issues).
Other financial contributions
In addition to supporting the office-nominated organisations, Maurice Blackburn makes contributions to other groups.
For example, we made a donation to Get Up, a lobby group that mobilises people at a high level to promote causes and influence policy. Get Up has been active in seeking increased funding for the ABC, establishing the conscience vote in relation to the RU 486 Bill concerning reproductive choice, and protesting against the Migration Bill that would have reinstated the detention of children.
We have also made a donation to Per Capita, a left-wing think tank that involves high profile, high quality people including Evan Thornley and Therese Rein.
