Our Corporate Social Responsibility Office does a great deal of work with shareholder advocacy. Another of their tasks involves choosing and following up with recipients of our congregation's social justice grants. In a recent article for our congregational newsletter, Sr. Nora Nash talked about one instance where these two functions coincided. The work done by GoodWeave was something that really impressed me when I was editing the article for publication and I thought you might enjoy it as well. It also gives you some insight into another aspect of our sisters' ministries where we work to put our beliefs into measurable actions!
On September 2, 2015, we learned that Target “has teamed up with GoodWeave in support of their mission to end Child Labor in the rug industry.” Check out https://corporate.target.com/article/2015/09/good-weave-partnership. This happens to be double “good news” us because we not only work with Target in shareholder advocacy, but we have also supported GoodWeave with our social justice grants.
The executive director of GoodWeave, Nina Smith, wrote a special letter to share this wonderful and exciting news. Summary details of the letter follow. According to GoodWeave, Target is a $72 billion company and the single largest licensee in GoodWeave history. GoodWeave teams have already spent time together in Target’s source-weaving communities in India as well as their Minneapolis headquarters.
The most important moment in GoodWeave’s model to end child Labor occurs when a company signs a contract with GoodWeave, agreeing to open up all levels of their carpet-making supply chains for random, surprise inspection. This single act unlocks the doors where children toil in obscurity, deterring producers from exploiting children and ensuring that if a child is hidden away in a subcontracted workshop, GoodWeave will find and protect her. Companies sign with GoodWeave for a range of reasons: because consumers demand it, to mitigate risk, or to achieve broader corporate responsibility goals. GoodWeave measures success in this area through market share growth and in 2015 project to reach 7% market share—one step closer to our tipping point estimated at 17%.
Additionally, for 2014 GoodWeave set a new high for consumer reach—85 million at year-end with earned media coverage in The Huffington Post, NPR, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN.com, The New Yorker, and more. Some of their direct community impact data points include
§ 52 children rescued from labor on the looms and provided rehabilitation,
§ 39,007 adult workers assisted, including job training and placement,
§ education offered to 2,558 children,
§ approximately 28,000 deterred from entering the workforce.
GoodWeave’s priority is to implement its expanded standard, phasing into the certification the concept of no forced or bonded labor or trafficking. Their new standard, combined with their recent ISEAL Alliance membership and ISO65 accreditations, sets GoodWeave apart as one of a handful of organizations with the depth of expertise, capacity, and professionalism to monitor the informal labor sector and related supply chains.
GoodWeave has been experimenting with social programs that interrupt the cycle of illiteracy and exploitation even earlier. The idea is to reach a child in her home village before she ever comes face-to-face with an inspector in a factory. One key effort is the Child Friendly Community (CFC) model. This project engages teachers, parents, local government officials/panchayats, school administrators, and employers—all to support school enrollment for children. And it’s working. In 2013, the baseline household survey in 13 weaving villages identified 912 out-of-school children ages 3-18. Just over a year later, with the CFC approach, 91% had been enrolled in Motivation and Learning Centers or mainstreamed to government schools.
Additional Note
In the spring of 2011, Christian Brothers Investment Services, the Sisters of St, Francis of Philadelphia and a few other ICCR shareholders enabled Macy’s to be the first retail store to support GoodWeave in ending child labor in the rug market.
To read stories of children who have been rescued from child labor, visit
http://goodweave.org/children_stories_list.php?cid=15.
