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Community Service | Environmental

General Dynamics’ business success allows the company to invest in the communities in which we operate. General Dynamics supports organizations that have an educational, social, civic or arts focus. Business units develop and administer their community service programs to align with the local community needs using employee-formed committees and employee input to determine how the business unit can bring together its financial and volunteer resources.

Examples of programs our units support are described below.

In partnership with the Savannah-Chatham County, Ga., Public School System and local businesses, Gulfstream has launched a major education initiative for area high school students.  The Student Leadership Program (SLP) aims to increase opportunities available to students by improving their grades, equipping them with tangible skills and encouraging them to be formal or informal leaders in their school and community.  The program began with 150 high school freshmen attending a daylong leadership session featuring Stedman Graham, celebrity author of "Teens Can Make It Happen." Graham guided students through the nine steps intended to give them the tools necessary to achieve personal, social and career success.  Community advisers work with the students at monthly club meetings to enhance their leadership skills and to aid them in following the road map they created at the start of the program.  As the students enter their sophomore, junior and senior years, they will continue to participate in Leadership Clubs. They will be shown different career paths, given preparation for college or technical school, and exposed to life skills that will help them take responsibility for their future. Each year, a new class of ninth-graders will begin the SLP program.

As an outgrowth of leadership and team-building activities within Bath Iron Works’ manufacturing organization, a group of employees decided to expand those activities beyond the shipyard’s gates by recruiting fellow employees to volunteer, raise funds and build Habitat for Humanity homes in the local Bath, Maine, area. In December 2008, the third house built through a partnership between Bath Iron Works and Habitat for Humanity was completed and the single-parent family of a mother and her 13-year-old son moved into their new home in early 2009.  BIW-3, as the project is often referred to, is particularly noteworthy because it is the first Habitat Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) home built in this area.  Every home system from the ground up has some LEED functionality, such as the type of roofing and siding, the tape on the walls and the heating, plumbing and electrical systems, all designed to reduce the cost of home ownership. 

In 2008, NASSCO continued its longstanding partnership with the Logan Heights facility of the Family Health Centers of San Diego.  The Logan Heights facility serves the community that borders NASSCO, providing quality health care at little or no cost, based on the patient’s means.  In 2008, the Logan Heights facility saw more than 57,000 unique patients and its adjunct Teen Health Center (also in Barrio Logan) saw more than 4,500 patients.  As the director of community service said, “We’re seeing some pretty big increases right now with so many people losing their jobs.”  The center is the largest single recipient in NASSCO’s charitable contributions program, and funds were leveraged due to matching funds from a fundraiser connected with the San Diego Padres philanthropic efforts.

The General Dynamics Land Systems Muskegon Technical Center (MTC) in Muskegon, Michigan, has a long history of charitable giving in the community. The MTC has been supplying winter apparel for needy local school children for a number of years. To be an even more positive force, in 2006, employees formed the Community Out Reach Committee, or CORC. The mission of this committee is to help identify charitable needs, communicate those needs to employees and assist in efforts to help fulfill those needs.  Since that time, the children’s clothing program, called Winter Apparel Relief Movement, or WARM, has expanded from clothing 80 children in 2005 to more than 170 children in 2008.  Additionally, the MTC was able to raise funds to support other area agencies to help house, feed and clothe less fortunate people in the Muskegon community.  Recipients of the donations included the Muskegon Rescue Mission, American Cancer Society, Every Woman’s Place, Muskegon Pregnancy Services, Second Harvest/Gleaners, Sacred Suds, Mission for Area People, and Wings of Mercy.

General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited was recently presented with a STEMNET award recognizing the company’s outstanding contribution to the Science and Engineering Ambassadors Programme 2008, and the company’s commitment to supporting local Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) events and activities. The award is a tribute to all the Science and Engineering Ambassadors, in recognition for all their efforts in supporting the STEMNET activities during the last three years.

In May 2008, General Dynamics C4 Systems celebrated its fourth annual “Support Our Heroes” Military Ball which raised funds for the Fisher House Foundation, Inc. The Fisher House Foundation is a private-public partnership established in 1990 to help place families near military service members recuperating or rehabilitating from injuries suffered while serving our nation. General Dynamics volunteers continue to make a substantial contribution to this project.

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