Innovation

The Mets' work with Girl Scout Troop 6000 specifically targets gender equality. Troop 6000 is based in New York City and is specifically designed to serve girls in the New York City shelter city. The wives of Mets players and coaches greeted the girls of Troop 6000 and worked on exercises and activities to boost confidence and public speaking skills with girls. The Mets are also working towards gender equality by donating equipment to baseball and softball teams, the Mets also say that gender equality is a value instilled throughout Major League Baseball.

The Mets are also tackling zero hunger by hosting food drives and are incentivizing the donations by giving out tickets to fans; this can be seen through hurricane relief drives and their annual Thanksgiving drive. The team also hosts regular collection drives throughout the year, which allow fans the opportunity to donate, including food, coats, equipment and even blood drives.

The Mets also provide a program that targets the problem of overall health. The Mets have partnered up with Bloomberg LP to create Mets Bike Build. Mets Bike Build benefits children of New York City by building bikes for the YMCA and other organizations. Through the power of volunteers, the Mets have built thousands of bikes for children in underserved areas.

Inspiration

For our AIM2Flourish assignment, we had the opportunity to communicate with Tony Croslin from the New York Mets’ Community Outreach team. The purpose of this team is to actively promote community wellness, identify necessary services for the community, and to identify community needs. When asked what the community outreach team desires and what inspires their projects, Tony said “to make New York City a better place." The Mets are very aware of their status as an icon of New York City and only want to make it greater for the people who make the city such a great place.

Overall impact

Tony explained, “All of the groups that we partner with have one thing in common: passion for their clients. We work with groups that define what it means to be passionate about serving others. By serving these organizations, we can help them reach a greater number of people. Each one of these groups have built a strong relationship with us and we work with them year round. Therefore, we create a strong relationship with these organizations, and we can closely see how beneficial they are to the community around us. Also, it is a great way to get in touch with many of our fans. Many of these people grow up around Citi Field and they admire the Mets. Giving them the chance to be around some of our employees is very rewarding."

The Queens Community House program, particularly helps many individuals from Queens. The Mets provide them with basic necessities so they can thrive in school and work. Secondly, Queens Community House takes care of our senior citizens as well, by engaging them in activities with caregivers or other seniors, creating lasting relationships, and flourishing friendships.

Finally, The River Fund helps those living below the lines of poverty. They combat circumstances that create persistent shortages of critical resources in people's lives and cause them to face episodes of acute deprivation vary dramatically-ranging from the obvious, such as lack of sufficient income, to the overwhelming, like poor health or severe work-limiting health conditions.

Business benefit

Mets influence the local community positively by providing all kinds of community services and strive to give back to those in need. For example, the improvement of the wireless Internet access, the new perks and the new menu items inside Citi Field contribute to the increase of Mets’ ticket sales. David Newman, the Mets’ Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications said, “The wins and losses you can’t control. You can control the fan experience.”

Another example is the Commissioner's Community Initiative program. It offers complimentary tickets to 501 charitable organizations and allows citizens to attend a Mets game that they otherwise may not be able to afford. This effort not only helps increase the number of Mets fans but also improves the Mets' reputation with the community. As mentioned in our interview, “The more we do, the better this looks for the brand of the New York Mets, adding value to the Mets name by doing good in the community.” Through a series of community activities, Mets bring their employees, their players, their fans and their corporate partners together.

Social and environmental benefit

“Sometimes, the most valuable gift you can give is your time”, said Jeff Wilpon, the Chief Operating Officer of Mets. The time donated by the players, fans and corporate partners of Mets brings significant benefits to society. The Mets is not only a baseball team in New York City but also a powerful supporter to the local community development. They keep focusing on social issues, such as gender equality, health, unemployment, hunger and disaster relief. For example, in 2017, Mets donated and collected more than 300,000 pounds of food, water, paper goods and other much-needed suppliers for those impacted by the Hurricanes Maria, Harvey and Irma in the United States.

Also, Mets provided social service to the community. Their employees spent hundreds of hours to hand out turkeys, serve meals and build bike to help others in the community. Through Girl scout program and employee engagement program, the Mets provide more opportunities for women and unemployed people to better achieve their goals.

Mets also create environmental benefits that they have cooperate relationship with Action Carting Environmental Services and ARAMAIC and make new efforts, such as recycling food waste, saving water and purchasing green products to achieve the goal of zero waste to landfills by 2030.

Interview

Tony Croslin, Assistant Community Engagement & External Affairs