of Citizens Bank
(Constance Brown)
“A real difference.”
Citizens Bank Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Lawrence K. Fish suggests that is exactly what the bank is making in the communities it serves – “a real difference.”
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It is the phrase Citizens Bank officials have attached to the company’s Community Service Sabbatical Program.
It sounds good. It looks good in Citizens’ press releases. But it is also more than that. Providence-based Citizens has delivered on its promise.
Just ask Rebecca Hull.
Hull, of Providence, is an international banking employee who works out of a Citizens office in Cranston. She has been with the company for 12 years. Starting next week, she will instead report to work in Providence, at The Women’s Center of Rhode Island. It is a shelter that focuses on domestic violence and all of the issues related to it.
“There is a great need for people to be more aware of domestic violence and that there is help for victims,” said Hull. “So many people live with this daily. They need to know that someone does care.”
The Community Service Sabbatical program was started seven years ago. To date, 21 Citizens employees have participated – having been granted three-month paid leaves of absence.
To be eligible, employees need to have been with the bank — or one of its subsidiaries — for at least three years. They are required to work a standard full-time schedule and be supervised regularly by personnel at the community service organization. At the conclusion of their sabbaticals, employees are asked to write a critique of the experience. They are guaranteed their same pre-sabbatical salary and level of responsibility when they return from their sabbatical.
Fish is quick to point out that the sabbatical program represents a very real commitment – on the part of the bank and those employees who take part.
“We think our sabbatical program is of particular value” said Fish. “Employees don’t just spend a day at a cleanup or at a community center. They have the opportunity to spend three months making a difference.”
That Hull stepped forward to take part in the program will come as no surprise to those who know her. She is simply someone who reaches out to others. For nearly a year, two nights each week, she has volunteered at Sojourner House in Providence, distributing information about HIV/AIDS.
When Hull saw that helping women impacted by domestic violence was among the sabbatical opportunities, she did not hesitate to apply.
“I have always wanted to be involved in community service – especially helping women,” she said. “I jumped at this opportunity.”
A successful sabbatical experience, said Kathy O’Donnell, of Citizens, also requires that the employee’s co-workers pitch in and help.
“There is a tremendous amount of support that has to happen within a department,” she said.
In Hull’s case, she added, that support has been outstanding.
In past years, Citizens employees as part of the sabbatical program have worked at a variety of community organizations, including The Log School Settlement House in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, Habitat for Humanity and French Hill Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., in Nashua, New Hampshire, The Martin Luther King Center and New Visions of Newport County, Newport, Rhode Island, and The Children’s Home in Cromwell, Connecticut.
In addition to Hull, Beverley Tilley, of Concord, New Hampshire, Robena Thompson Singh, of Boston, and Mary Russell, of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, have been awarded sabbaticals.
Tilley will work at a homeless shelter in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Singh will work with abandoned and orphaned children at The Home for Little Wanderers in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. And Russell will work with residents at The Women and Children’s Center, a substance abuse center for pregnant women and their children in Middletown, Connecticut.
