The meeting, scheduled for June 27, will be an opportunity to understand how companies can support the professional relocation of refugees in Brazil
WeWork – a member of the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) and the largest network of workspaces in the world – in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), will hold the event “Private Sector and Refugees: How can my company contribute?”. The event, which aims to support companies to engage in the cause, closes the activities of World Refugee Week and celebrates the first year in Brazil of the Refugee Initiative, WeWork's global program to support the cause. Open to the public, the meeting will take place at WeWork Atílio Innocenti 165, starting at 6:30 pm.
“This will be an opportunity to understand the different ways in which companies can support the relocation of refugees into the Brazilian job market, through the presentation of success stories and the network of partners who have worked with us on the cause over the last year,” explains Camila Weber, communications and institutional relations manager at WeWork in Brazil.
To this end, the meeting will feature presentations by some organizations that support the cause, such as the Refugee Relocation Support Program (PARR), Estou Refugiado and Migraflix. The Companies with Refugees platform, launched by UNHCR and the Brazil Network of the United Nations Global Compact, will also be presented, with the aim of highlighting the potential that refugees have to contribute to companies. In addition, a panel will discuss cases of good practices for the inclusion of these people in the job market, presenting real cases.
Since late 2018, WeWork has been participating in Empowering Refugees, a program by the Global Compact Brazil Network in partnership with UNHCR and UN Women, which aims to prepare women in refugee situations to enter the Brazilian job market, engaging companies to hire them. “WeWork has contributed effectively to the program by holding hiring workshops where companies with open positions interview candidates from the program,” says Camila Sombra, deputy head of the UNHCR office in São Paulo.
More than 40 companies have already participated in these workshops, including Grupo Fleury and OIKOS, which have already hired people through the program. “Since we started hiring refugees, we have realized that our company benefits greatly from cultural diversity and the knowledge that these people bring to our daily lives. One example is Gabriela, a Venezuelan refugee who has been working with us for a month. She has shown great interest in learning and has shown excellent results, even in a short period of time,” explains Mirella Araujo, Fleury Group’s recruitment and selection coordinator. “This hiring reinforces the Company’s Diversity program and encourages respect and appreciation of differences,” adds Daniel Périgo, the Group’s senior sustainability and safety manager.
For Sérgio Vitelli, CEO of GRUPO OIKOS, a company that provides cleaning and catering services for WeWork, hiring refugees is already part of the company's reality. "We have been working with foreigners since 2015 and our data shows that turnover “The number of refugees is lower than the general average,” he says. Today, the company has ten hired refugees and half of them work in WeWork buildings. “We have a proposal to include vulnerable populations, including homeless people, refugees, and now starting with transgender people. When we started working with WeWork, we put this project into practice in the units. Currently, our goal is to have at least one refugee per address,” he concludes.
The event “Private Sector and Refugees: How can my company contribute?” is free, upon prior registration on the website sectorprivadoerefugiados.splashthat.com
Service
Event “Private Sector and Refugees: how can my company contribute?”
When: June 27th (Thursday), from 6:30 pm
Where: WeWork Atílio Innocenti 165 (Professor Atílio Innocenti Street, 165) – Sao Paulo (SP)
About the WeWork Refugee Initiative
The WeWork Refugee Initiative, developed by the company since 2017, joins forces to support refugees in building a better future through hiring, partnerships and connection to job opportunities within and outside the WeWork community. By 2022, WeWork expects to reach a total of 1,500 refugees in the workforce worldwide.
About WeWork
Founded by Adam and Rebekah Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in 2010, The We Company comprises three distinct business lines – WeWork, WeLive and WeGrow. Present in Brazil since 2017, WeWork currently has 485 units in 105 cities in 28 countries and has more than 460,000 members, including more than 30% from Fortune 500 companies. In Brazil, it has more than 18,000 members and 19 physical spaces in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. For more information, visit www.we.co
