Local Partnerships
Toyota Australia works with local councils where it has major operations - Port Phillip and Hobsons Bay in Victoria and the Shire of Sutherland in New South Wales.
City of Port Phillip and Sutherland Shire Council
The City of Port Phillip and Sutherland Shire Council support Toyota Australia's Community Spirit art galleries in the company's headquarters in Port Melbourne and at its sales and marketing operations in Woolooware Bay, Sydney.
The galleries showcase art works from emerging artists and give artists from the local surrounding areas a space to display their works free-of-charge with no commission charged on sales. The company holds an exhibition launch and develops a catalogue for each exhibition.
In 2010 Community Spirit exhibitions included:
- 'The PaRing Gallery' - The first exhibition dedicated to Indigenous art in conjunction with Koorie Heritage Trust
- 'Of Snowflakes & Spacetime: Life, Symmetry and the Evolution of the Universe'
- 'The Butterfly Effect'
- Indigenous Show - Featuring an artist from the Gnarra Aboriginal Artists Group (Sydney)
The PaRing Gallery
Toyota Australia exhibited the PaRing Gallery in its Community Spirit Gallery in Melbourne in July 2010. The PaRing Gallery aims to create PaRing (pathways) between the Melbourne business community and first Australian culture. It is a gallery on the move - exhibiting in various corporate buildings in Melbourne.
The exhibition was launched in partnership with Koorie Heritage Trust Inc, a cultural centre which aims to protect, preserve and promote living culture of the Indigenous people of South-Eastern Australia, along with the Committee for Melbourne Future Focus Group (FFG), a group of young business leaders that initiates community projects.
The aim of the exhibition was to find a way for Aboriginal people to bring their art and culture deeper into the daily lives of Melbournians. By displaying this work in major corporate buildings in Melbourne, they felt they could help create pathways between the cultures. The exhibition enables people to engage with the art as well as learn more about the artists, where they come from and what their heritage means to them.
Each exhibition remained accessible to the public for approximately four weeks and moved through a number of corporate buildings in Melbourne.
The PaRing Gallery was the 23rd exhibition shown since the Community Spirit Gallery commenced operations in 2004. The program has now featured the works of over 670 artists.
Hobsons Bay City Council
The majority of Toyota Australia's employees are based in the company's manufacturing plant in Altona in the city of Hobsons Bay. Toyota Australia has partnered with Hobsons Bay City Council since 2004 to build capacity in the local community and support local social and environmental groups.
One of the ways it does this is by partnering with the Council to deliver a series of training workshops that address the needs and priorities of local groups.
Volunteer presenters and external subject experts facilitate the workshops which cover subjects such as people management, submission writing and identifying funding opportunities. In addition, the company, in conjunction with Ricoh Australia, donated two printers, valued at $1,500 each, to community groups in Hobsons Bay.
Little Penguins Get New Homes
More than 300 Toyota Australia employees and their families volunteered their time to build penguin nesting boxes and to plant trees at Phillip Island in Victoria during one weekend at the beginning of November 2010.
The volunteers helped build penguin nesting boxes for the Little Penguins of Phillip Island as part of Toyota Australia's Community Spirit partnership with Phillip Island Nature Park - an involvement which spans eight years. The penguin homes provide an improved environment for the birds to breed, hatch and raise their chicks, lifting the overall health of the penguin colony.
Friends of Lower Kororoit Creek
Toyota Australia supports local environmental projects via its partnership with the Friends of Lower Kororoit Creek, a local community group which helps to rehabilitate the Kororoit Creek in Hobsons Bay. Part of the creek runs along the eastern boundary of the company's manufacturing plant in Altona.
Employees from Toyota Australia's manufacturing plant volunteer their time each year to plant trees along the creek banks as part of National Tree Day. In 2010, approximately 120 people including employees, their families and members of the local community, volunteered their time to plant approximately 1,500 native plants in Kororoit Creek.
For further information please see www.folkc.com.au