Council for World-Class Communities: Improving the Community One Day at a Time

At Whirlpool, we believe that with success comes great responsibility. That is why we believe in passionately giving back to the community.

Taking its commitment to Diversity and Inclusion into the community, Whirlpool developed the Council for World-Class Communities (CWCC), a nonprofit organization, dedicated to the social and economic growth of the Southwest Michigan region. Whirlpool's former CEO founded CWCC to help the twin cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph embrace diversity on the community level.

The CWCC has three areas of focus:

1) Diversity with Inclusion Training: Diversity trainers provide a variety of diversity seminars, information sessions and consultant engagement to help individuals and organizations analyze and embed diversity concepts

2) Community Engagement: CWCC provides opportunities for individuals and communities to address prevalent racial, social and economic issues.

3) Thought Haven: CWCC has cultivated an environment where critical/emotional topics can be discussed. In addition to providing an emotionally safe environment to discuss these topics, CWCC has developed resources to facilitate innovation, ideation and strategic planning sessions.

CWCC has touched the Southwest Michigan area in numerous ways. Below is just a sample of the many ways CWCC has improved people's lives:

• Bridges to Digital Excellence: This CWCC-established program offers computer hardware and software for technology-disadvantaged 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade children and their families. The child and a guardian can attend a free eight-hour computer course and are given a donated computer along with three months of free internet service and a discount for future internet access.
• Community-wide Diversity and Inclusion: CWCC provides a free Diversity and Inclusion workshop for the community that deals with issues such as race and gender dynamics and creating awareness of exclusionary practices. This five-day workshop allows the participants to become Diversity and Inclusion facilitators for their own business, church group or family.
• Microsoft Office Certification: CWCC has partnered with the Community Partnership for Life-Long Learning to provide a Microsoft Certification Course. This course combines the technical training for the office suite with life coaching, to provide a holistic approach for individuals to build their capacity. Once individuals are certified, they are given preferential interviews with local organizations to help facilitate their ability to achieve.
• Housing and Home Ownership (H²0) Consortium: In partnership with the alliance, CWCC has created a consortium dedicated to increasing home ownership within our local communities. This Consortium will ensure community benefit from a large scale ($500M) development project currently being planned. It will provide financial management training, homeownership training and credit counseling to participants. In addition, the Consortium is currently planning to partner with local banks and investors to create a mortgage fund to support 150+ new construction and rehab loans. The result of this consortium will increase homeownership rates by 5% in Benton Harbor.

Whirlpool employees volunteer for these and many other CCWC projects year round. CCWC volunteers have the opportunity to volunteer for projects in areas such as education, government & public policy, youth empowerment and the recreation coalition. For more information about CWCC, take a visit to www.cwcconline.org.

If making a difference in your community and your world is important to you, submit your resume to Whirlpool today.