Corporate Social Responsibility

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About Us / Corporate Social Responsibility

As one of the largest private sector employers in the British Virgin Islands, Harneys feels a compelling duty to act as caring, proactive and responsible participant in the local community. We believe that our collective contributions to the community bring us closer together as an organisation and allow us to invest in the future of the BVI.

Our CSR programme is divided into four key areas:

Supporting youth programmes and education is at the heart of Harneys’ CSR activities.

 

Our flagship community education project has been the adoption since 2005 of the Francis Lettsome Primary School, a public primary school in East End, Tortola. Over the years we have made improvements to the school facilities, purchased playground equipment, sponsored enrichment activities, and volunteered at school events.

 

Harneys has been a stalwart supporter of athletics in the BVI community, having supported the BVI Olympic Committee and numerous individual sporting associations over the years.

 

We invest heavily in educational opportunities for our staff and for young people, particularly those from the BVI and the wider Caribbean, who wish to enter into the legal profession. We offer a formal training programme for newly-qualified lawyers, tuition support for staff, and internships for law students. For details about these and other programmes, please visit the Careers section of this website.
 

Harneys is a long-standing supporter of the Performing Arts Series at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, which brings world-class classical and jazz performers to the British Virgin Islands, while also providing a stage for the BVI’s own gifted musicians.

 

We are an annual sponsor of Christmas on Main Street, a street party featuring holiday entertainment and local cultural performances held in early December in the heart of Road Town’s historic district.

 

In 2009, Harneys adopted the environment as a major thrust of its CSR activities. We launched “Harneys Green” a programme to minimize our own impact on the environment and have also entered into partnerships with local environmental organisations.

 

Harneys is the only firm in the BVI to have professional legal staff exclusively dedicated to pro-bono work, and the firm played a fundamental role in the development of the jurisdiction’s legal aid system. Our pro-bono work is a key opportunity for us to give back to the community by providing access to justice for individuals and charitable organisations otherwise unable to afford legal representation.

 

In addition to the key CSR programme areas listed above, Harneys supports various community and non-profit groups. We make annual contributions to Virgin Islands Search and Rescue and the BVI Inter-School Spelling Bee; we support staff members’ charitable and fund-raising projects, and we donate to the Rotary Clubs of the BVI.

For more information about Harneys’ corporate social responsibility programme, please contact PR and Communications Manager Susanna Henighan Potter (susanna.henighanpotter@harneys.com.)

 

For more information about scholarships, internships and Harneys’ professional development programme, please contact HR Manager Ghana Skelton-Smith (ghana.skelton-smith@harneys.com).