Toyota Motor North America is collaborating with its nonprofit partners in the LGBTQ+ community to better serve client and patient healthcare needs during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. More than $275,000 of previously awarded funding is being reallocated to support critical needs.
“Minority populations – including those in the LGBTQ+ community – are at increased risk during a pandemic, presenting social, economic and healthcare challenges,” said Al Smith, group vice president and Chief Social Innovation Officer, Toyota Motor North America. “Redirecting these funds helps our partners stay nimble to focus on this evolving situation.”
Additionally, Toyota is donating $25,000 to support life-saving healthcare services for AIDS/LifeCycle’s beneficiaries, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. These much-needed funds are essential because the charity bike ride, which raised more than $16.7 million last year, was forced to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants, including a Toyota team of volunteers, continue to fundraise for the cause.
Toyota-produced personal protective equipment (PPE) face shields are also being sent to the Los Angeles LGBT Center to help outreach employees and other staff take proper health safety measures.
Toyota’s efforts with its partners on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community include:
Dallas Resource Center:
Offering curbside pickup of food pantry services.
Moving primary care visits, dentistry, and behavioral health services to telehealth platforms.
Maintaining mental health and educational resources for youth through online meetings, chats, and social media.
Human Rights Campaign Foundation:
Helping with emergency relief for LGBTQ+
Los Angeles LGBT Center:
Shifting most medical and mental health services to a telehealth platform.
Continuing to address the housing and basic needs of homeless youth.
Performing wellness checks for more than 2,000 isolated older adults.
Point Foundation:
Addressing student housing and food insecurity during the pandemic.
Trevor Project:
Supporting a record number of crisis contacts with LGBTQ+ youth via 24/7 direct services delivered remotely.
Virtual Automotive and Tech Field Trips
Since the advent of Covid-19, virtual learning has become the new norm for millions of students. To support students in the virtual environment, enhance the positive impacts of this new learning reality, and grow their spirit of innovation, Toyota and Discovery Education have teamed-up to offer students a series of interactive field trips. These no-cost virtual field trips take students through remarkable experiences and amazing places, without ever leaving their home.
Kids and families across the United States can take a ride into the future of mobility and experience the innovations of artificial intelligence, automated driving, and the science behind vehicle safety. See all the virtual field trips available from TeenDrive365 and discover more no-cost digital learning resources that support virtual learning, like:
Cars of the Future: Artificial Intelligence and Automated Vehicles
See how Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is using artificial intelligence to develop human support robots and automated vehicles with an emphasis on machine learning and other STEM concepts.
The Toyota Impact: The Engineering Behind Safe Driving
Get an insider’s view of how some of the brightest thinkers tackle the challenges drivers face every day and design new features that improve driver safety.
Toyota Under the Hood: The Science Behind Safe Driving
Go behind the scenes at Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Princeton, Indiana, where the latest in robotics, automotive safety and production innovation are pushing the boundaries of modern vehicle manufacturing.
“These free virtual field trips and career exploration videos help open up a world of possibility for youth and are a great way to learn,” said Al Smith, Group Vice President and Chief Social Innovation Officer.
Educators, families, and teens can also learn life-saving habits through the Toyota TeenDrive365 Challenge: a video challenge for high school students across the United States to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving.
“The incredible materials created in partnership with organizations like Toyota have helped students thrive in situations where they might not have without the proper resources,” says Lauren DeNu, Director of Partner Success from Discovery Education.
TeenDrive365, a digital program produced in partnership between Toyota and Discovery Education, offers no-cost digital learning resources empowering educators, families, and teens with life-saving habits. The Toyota TeenDrive365 resources are available at teendrive365inschool.com and through Discovery Education Experience.
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Discovery Education is offering schools and school systems not currently using the company’s digital services free access to Discovery Education Experience. Schools accepting this offer will have access to Discovery Education’s dynamic K-12 learning platform and its ready-to-use digital lesson plans, activities, and standards-aligned resources through the remainder of the school year. In addition, Discovery Education is offering a suite of no cost resources for parents and caregivers called Daily DE that can be used at home. For more information, visit Discovery Education’s comprehensive Virtual Learning resource center dedicated to helping educators adapt their instruction to meet today’s needs.
Volkswagen Dealers Support Community
From organizing senior meal deliveries to leading donation drives, Volkswagen dealerships across the country are doing their part to help find new and inventive ways to support their neighbors during these difficult times. Below are three examples of dealerships driving something bigger in their local communities.Since March, Volkswagen of Bismarck in North Dakota has donated more than $30,000 towards COVID-19 relief efforts in its community. The team has purchased gift cards in $500 chunks at locally owned businesses and donated them in $50 increments to local hospital workers, police officers, firefighters and emergency medical staff.
“We call them our frontline heroes,” says Volkswagen of Bismarck brand marketing manager Jenna Adam.
In addition to gift cards, the dealership has provided complimentary rental vehicles to local restaurants to use for delivery services. “A little effort can go such a long way for these small businesses,” said Adam. “Our community has always been there for us and we wanted to show we are here for them, always.”
At Tom’s River Volkswagen in New Jersey, owner Tom McMenamin received a tip from one of his employees that senior citizens were struggling with a lack of access to essential goods. He and his team developed a daily delivery service for four local retirement communities. Manned by three dedicated attendants six hours a day, the service has already helped more than 200 families.
“No matter what the situation is – bad or good – there’s always some light that can come from it,” says McMenamin. “Many of the individuals we’ve helped have loved ones that live far away and are not able to provide them with the help they need, which includes access to life-saving medicines.”
Vic Bailey Volkswagen in Spartanburg, S.C., has donated more than 500 pounds of non-perishable food items to a local disaster relief program after hearing food banks and pantries across the country were suffering from a disruption in food donations and volunteers.
The dealership launched the drive in early April and challenged their community to fill the cargo area of an Atlas with items to help support the most vulnerable members of their community affected by the pandemic.
“I honestly didn’t check [the trunk] for several days because I was nervous that people wouldn’t participate,” said Vic Bailey Volkswagen general manager Hal Foster. “But when I walked past the trunk, I was shocked. It was already filled with items.”
Within days, the dealership had to put the third row down to allow for more room. Soon after, the second had to come down. “I think there’s a lot of value in times like these … when we, as a community, focus our attention on others rather than ourselves,” Foster says.
While the drive will continue to run through April, the team has already collected triple the amount of food items they typically raise around Thanksgiving.
“Volkswagen is interested in doing more than selling a car to people,” said Foster. “Volkswagen is interested in partnering with people and doing life together, which in turn gives us the drive to do something bigger every day for our community.”
“Drive Bigger is not just a slogan,” he added. “It’s a call to action – and we are showing up.”
Virtual Automotive and Tech Field Trips
Since the advent of Covid-19, virtual learning has become the new norm for millions of students. To support students in the virtual environment, enhance the positive impacts of this new learning reality, and grow their spirit of innovation, Toyota and Discovery Education have teamed-up to offer students a series of interactive field trips. These no-cost virtual field trips take students through remarkable experiences and amazing places, without ever leaving their home.
Kids and families across the United States can take a ride into the future of mobility and experience the innovations of artificial intelligence, automated driving, and the science behind vehicle safety. See all the virtual field trips available from TeenDrive365 and discover more no-cost digital learning resources that support virtual learning, like:
Cars of the Future: Artificial Intelligence and Automated Vehicles
See how Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is using artificial intelligence to develop human support robots and automated vehicles with an emphasis on machine learning and other STEM concepts.
The Toyota Impact: The Engineering Behind Safe Driving
Get an insider’s view of how some of the brightest thinkers tackle the challenges drivers face every day and design new features that improve driver safety.
Toyota Under the Hood: The Science Behind Safe Driving
Go behind the scenes at Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Princeton, Indiana, where the latest in robotics, automotive safety and production innovation are pushing the boundaries of modern vehicle manufacturing.
“These free virtual field trips and career exploration videos help open up a world of possibility for youth and are a great way to learn,” said Al Smith, Group Vice President and Chief Social Innovation Officer.
Educators, families, and teens can also learn life-saving habits through the Toyota TeenDrive365 Challenge: a video challenge for high school students across the United States to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving.
“The incredible materials created in partnership with organizations like Toyota have helped students thrive in situations where they might not have without the proper resources,” says Lauren DeNu, Director of Partner Success from Discovery Education.
TeenDrive365, a digital program produced in partnership between Toyota and Discovery Education, offers no-cost digital learning resources empowering educators, families, and teens with life-saving habits. The Toyota TeenDrive365 resources are available at teendrive365inschool.com and through Discovery Education Experience.
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Discovery Education is offering schools and school systems not currently using the company’s digital services free access to Discovery Education Experience. Schools accepting this offer will have access to Discovery Education’s dynamic K-12 learning platform and its ready-to-use digital lesson plans, activities, and standards-aligned resources through the remainder of the school year. In addition, Discovery Education is offering a suite of no cost resources for parents and caregivers called Daily DE that can be used at home. For more information, visit Discovery Education’s comprehensive Virtual Learning resource center dedicated to helping educators adapt their instruction to meet today’s needs.