Island Savings to Help Big Brothers Big Sisters Go Lean in the Capital Region

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Oct. 29, 2014) - Already seeing the benefits of greater efficiency and less waste, Island Savings will pay its recent Lean learning forward to help long-time community partner Big Brothers Big Sisters reduce the time it currently takes to match a child with his or her big brother or sister.

"Island Savings has already improved its service to our members by applying Lean principles to shave the number of employee hours spent on paperwork and bulky processes," says Steve Chubby, senior manager of retail banking at Island Savings and a director on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters' Victoria and Southern Gulf Islands chapter. "The idea here is to extend the reach of this well-respected program to help Big Brothers Big Sisters bring even more value to the kids they work with across the Islands."

Lean - an efficiency-finding program that organizations across the globe have adopted to reduce waste and empower their employees to streamline their own work - is relatively new to Island Savings, a product of the credit union's budding relationship with First West Credit Union. Two Lean specialists - Rita Cooper, a Lean Greenbelt from Island Savings and Ryan Visscher, a Lean Blackbelt from First West - will spend a week in January working closely with Big Brothers Big Sisters to evaluate how intake currently works for its flagship mentoring program, hoping to find areas where paperwork and processing time can be reduced. The chapter's current matching process can take up to five months.

"We've wanted to take a critical look at our intake procedure for years, hoping to reduce the paperwork and the wait times so that the kids we work with can pair up with appropriate Bigs much faster than they do today," says Rhonda Brown, Executive Director with Big Brothers Big Sisters Victoria. "This pilot will bring immense value to children and families in the capital region and, if successful, it could be leveraged to improve Big Brothers Big Sisters' service delivery model across the country."

Island Savings has proudly sponsored Big Brothers Big Sisters chapters across Vancouver and the Southern Gulf Islands for five years through its Growing Island Families Together (GIFT) program, providing essential funding for the organization's in-school mentoring program. In the 2013-14 school year, this sponsorship helped match 69 new children across the capital region with in-school mentors and sustained relationships for another 40 students. Island Savings also donated $5 for every member that attended the credit union's recent series of member meetings to Big Brothers Big Sisters chapters in Victoria, Nanaimo and the Cowichan Valley, contributing over $2,000 to help sustain the non-profit's programming across the Islands.

"Our commitment to bring Lean thinking to Big Brothers Big Sisters is a natural extension of our existing partnership," adds Chubby. "Any improvement to their intake process automatically means more value for the children this vital organization serves - and that's really what Island Savings is here to support."

About Island Savings

Island Savings is the Islands' most recommended banking experience. As a Top 50 Best Employer and Top 30 Greenest Companies in Canada, its neighbourhood experts offer financial, insurance and investment advice and products to over 100,000 Islanders. Managing a total portfolio of $2.8 billion under administration, Island Savings is investing $15 million from 2012-2015 to expand their branch network and all service delivery platforms. Since 2010, their successful Growing Island Families Together (GIFT) program has proudly given over $7.0 million back to the community.