CSR Story
THE MRC
Transforming the Mayaro Community
For generations BP Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT) has been breaking bread with the Mayaro community. Though BPTT’s head office is based in Port of Spain, its major operating sites are located offshore in the Columbus Basin and onshore in Mayaro. Together, the company and the community have developed a mutually beneficial relationship that has transformed Mayaro.
Transformation is never easy. Going into the community, the company wanted to galvanize support for their development programmes while creating shared value between community and company. But there were difficulties along the way – creating shared value requires time and understanding and the passion for developing trust with stakeholders.
As a first step, bpTT representatives garnered the support of key community leaders and began attending regular meetings with a number of stakeholder groups. These meetings soon culminated in an opportunity to hear from multiple audiences at the “Sustainable Development Conference” sponsored by the company in 2001.
Hearing is important, but listening is divine. The conference became a turning point in transforming the relationship between bpTT and the community. We listened to the Mayaro residents’ concerns and together were able to make incisive interventions in the areas of education, enterprise development and capacity development. In keeping with the spirit of transformation, bpTT created a new vision for its old Amoco Sports Club. The club, an exclusive, employee only designated enclave, was transformed into a multi-purpose best in class community hub for educational, vocational, sporting, and recreational activities. This records the birth of the all-embracing and all-inclusive Mayaro Resource Centre (MRC).
The MRC is comprised of office space, several classrooms, a state of the art conference room, an auditorium, modern kitchen facility, bar, gymnasium, an aerobic room, a 25-metre
swimming pool, a tennis and basketball court and over 16,000 square feet of playing fields for football and cricket (with a turf cricket pitch). Since opening its doors in 2003, the MRC has served more than 200,000 people.
However, the change from a sports club to an all encompassing community centre wasn’t just about brick and mortar. The MRC is a home for bpTT’s corporate responsibility initiatives in Mayaro – those same initiatives developed out of conference in 2001 and others. The MRC is the base for three of its key flagship social investment programmes in education, entrepreneurship and capacity building:
- The Brighter Prospects Scholarship Award – addressing the lack of tertiary level educated persons in the community, this programme distributes scholarships to students with the academic ability but without the financial means to participate in education at the tertiary level.
- The Mayaro Initiative for Private Enterprise Development – addressing the high level of unemployment in the community, this programme provides micro-credit to individuals from Mayaro who would like to start businesses in Mayaro. Entrepreneurs are also offered support in the development of their business plan and throughout the loan application process.
- NGO/CBO training – addressing the low levels of skills attainment in the community, this training opportunity seeks to strengthen the institutional capacity of NGOs and CBOs in the community. Participants are trained in a wide variety of field from financial management and reporting to ICT.
It is important to note, that the MRC does not only host bpTT’s CSR programmes but is also home to the CSR initiatives of our energy partners. For example, another major operator uses the MRC to host its longstanding homework centre. Even the government makes use of the facility for its SPORTT camps and as a designated shelter in case of a natural disaster.
Members of the community also have access to a range of other activities at the MRC. Mayaro’s residents can enjoy everything from aqua aerobics to zumba at the centre. The MRC is also available for rent at a highly subsidized fee and has hosted conferences and workshops, car shows and fete matches, graduations and anniversary celebrations, and family days and weddings. One resident, Janice Cameron shares her story. She’s raised her three children in Mayaro and enthusiastically announces that her entire family makes use of the facilities at the MRC. She lives and works in the community. She has a number of vocations – nail technician; massage therapist and because of her interaction with community members attending aqua aerobic classes at the MRC swimming pool, she also became a certified swim/aqua aerobics instructor. She proudly boasts of this achievement and attributes her new found passion to the MRC, saying “it [the MRC] has expanded my life and the life of my family.”
“We can see how our community has changed and continues to grow and I am really happy to be a part of that. For my own family…I [have] see[n] great improvement in our physical health [and] we’ve also come to enjoy the association [with the MRC] – it is a great place to meet people. When I attend consultations, classes at the pool or use the centre’s gym, I have so many networking opportunities,” Ms Cameron offered. “We get to know our neighbors better, share knowledge and learn more. The MRC has improved our entire well-being. We have experienced improvements all round: physically, mentally, economically, so much so that I have been encouraging others to take advantage of what we have in Mayaro. Every chance I get I tell other people about the benefits of using the Mayaro Resource Center and how to cherish it.”
The vast number of programmes at the MRC encourage community stakeholders on a path towards self- determination and self-actualization.
The Mayaro Resource Centre has literally become an incubator for ambitious scholars and entrepreneurs, a space that fosters making new connections and developing relationships, strengthening the bonds between families and neighbors. It is a space where dreams are shared and vision is encouraged.
Ronda Francis Corporate Responsibility Manager at bpTT says, “The local priorities in the community are changing and the MRC is evolving to ensure that we maximize resources to serve the Mayaro people at the right time and in the right way. The MRC enables us to deliver those services in a streamlined, coordinated, integrated and locally tailored way. Our aim is to bring solutions closer to residents. In addition to these services, we are planning to introduce an entrepreneurship development centre into the MRC.”
It is clear to see that the MRC is more than just a multi- purpose facility, it is a symbol of transformation and a beacon of hope for the Mayaro community. It is a place where bpTT has made a real investment in developing the skills-set of the community in which they operate while providing a space for the community to share learnings and build fellowship with each other. But perhaps the story of the MRC is most succinctly told in the words of
community leader and a pioneer in its transformation, Mr. Gregory Galera, when he said, “In the past, the history of the MRC was that it was this exclusive place. It was a club that could only be used by employees of AMOCO, but the community understood that the club could serve Mayaro in a better way. The transformation of the Amoco Sports Club to the Mayaro Resource Centre encapsulates the story of the struggle between the multinational, BPTT, and the community, and what can happen when people put aside their differences to work together for the sustainable benefit of all. Today, the MRC is a focal point in the community, it is a place that we can recreate, have outreach and all types of functions. I feel so proud of the community, to see people from the community not only utilizing the facility but also having a pivotal role in managing it on a day to day basis. The MRC is far different, more profitable and more beneficial to Mayaro than it was in the past. It is a beacon of hope for the community and I hope that it remains that way.”
