AbbVie employees volunteer to help local schools, communities

PRNewswire

NORTH CHICAGO - AbbVie launched its second annual Week of Possibilities volunteer program, with 3,100 employees globally volunteering more than 14,000 service hours to transform schools and communities where AbbVie employees live and work.

AbbVie launched Week of Possibilities in 2014 as a local initiative in which employees volunteered more than 6,800 hours to renovate schools and other learning facilities and provide educational materials to students in North Chicago, and Worcester, Mass. This year, the program has been expanded to include projects in Australia, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Russia and 31 other countries.

"In many communities, children face a significant achievement gap in science and literacy," said Richard A. Gonzalez, chairman and chief executive officer of AbbVie. "We are committed to helping narrow that gap to empower all the students of today to become the scientists of tomorrow."1

For 2015, AbbVie and the AbbVie Foundation have committed more than $1.3 million to Week of Possibility projects, and the company has donated the time of all its employee volunteers to help carry out the projects.

Locally, students at Neal Math & Science Academy and North Chicago Community High School will receive new libraries, stocked with new computers, desks, books and other resources. Volunteers will also paint classrooms, cafeterias, gyms and other spaces at two more schools and build an age-appropriate playground and equip and build out 18 classrooms for the district's first dedicated early learning center. That center, scheduled to open next fall, will provide full-day pre-K and kindergarten for the district's most at-risk youngsters.

"Improving education gives all children, especially those from underserved communities, a better opportunity to realize their full potential," Gonzalez said. "We're committed to that effort, and we're confident that our volunteer work during Week of Possibilities will have a long-lasting impact - on the children of today and on the future of our communities."