HIsmelt Sustainable Development Report 2007 - Rio Tinto

“Open Days are a great way
to meet our neighbours.”
HIsmelt Community Open Day
We opened our doors to the public in 2007 at the HIsmelt
Community Open Day. Over 400 local community
members visited our operations, went on a site tour and
learnt about how the HIsmelt technology is forging a
new era in iron and steelmaking technology. Community
partners manned displays at the event, profiling
their achievements, projects and activities and a fun
questionnaire tested people’s knowledge of HIsmelt and
what we do. HIsmelt employees from all facets of the
business gave up their own time to be at the event and
answer questions.
Community Partnerships
At HIsmelt we invest in community development projects
via long term partnerships designed to enhance quality of
life through education, technology and the environment.
Major community partnership and activities HIsmelt was
involved in for 2007 include:
Learning for Life
Kwinana families are unlocking the reading potential
of their children through an important local education
partnership between Rio Tinto (including HIsmelt) and
The Smith Family.
First formed in July 2003, the partnership facilitates The
Smith Family’s Learning for Life program in the Kwinana
region. In the next three years Rio Tinto, through HIsmelt
and its community investment arm the Rio Tinto WA
Future Fund, will contribute $780,000 to The Smith Family
in support of this initiative.
Learning for Life is a scholarship program that helps
hundreds of Western Australian children gain access to
education by providing financial support to assist with
education costs such as books, uniforms, stationery,
excursions and camps.
In 2007, a new innovative program as part of Learning for
Life called Keys to Literacy was launched. The program
unites a number of Kwinana community groups with
literacy programs under one banner to provide a suite of
resources for parents and children of all ages.
Keys to Literacy includes the following programs:
Better Beginnings is a universal early intervention family
literacy program that focuses on working in partnership
with families to provide positive language and literacy
influences for children in their first three years of life.
The program has been developed by the State Library of
Western Australia in response to the early years research
that shows that learning to read is the single most
important factor in school success.
Let’s Read is an early childhood literacy initiative of the
Centre for Community Child Health (a key research
centre of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute) in
partnership with The Smith Family, aiming to give families
the information and tools they need to introduce their
preschool-aged children (0-5 years) to books in a bid to
improve Australia’s literacy levels.
Kwinana Industries Education Partnership (KIEP)
KIEP is a formal agreement between members of the
Kwinana Industries Council and the 10 local senior high
schools. The partnership aims to bring education closer to
industry with the ultimate goal of switching youth on to
seeking careers in the local region.
Raising students’ awareness early on about the sorts of jobs
that are on offer along the Kwinana strip gives companies
in the region the best possible chance of securing a local
future workforce.
Working with the community 09
People