How Corporate Citizenship Creates Positive Outcomes

B Corp Success Rehabilitation Sees Worker and Client Benefits Thanks to Social Impact Strategies

By Eric Scott Klein and Kevin Tangney

Clarity of purpose is empowering.

At Success Rehabilitation, this concept is being applied to design our new “corporate citizen program,” giving all team members a chance to engage in worthy causes from environmental issues to community concerns. In our case, the term “citizenship” can refer to everything we do that affects society and community.

As a Certified B Corporation, our ability to do social good for our clients, team members, consumers, and partners is a core part of our identity. That is why we have an unwavering commitment to consider our impact on society and provide our team members an infrastructure to make a difference in the local and global community.

Building Our Social Capital

As a social enterprise, we evaluate our actions based on our impact on society and the communities that we serve — not just our fiscal performance. As a privately held organization, herein lies our advantage. The absence of short-term pressures during reporting periods allows us the flexibility to cultivate an authentic commitment to our communities and fulfill our mission for those who have experienced brain injury. When we look into the mirror held by society, we can ask the right questions:

Do we like what we see? If no, what should we do about it?

This question gives us clarity of purpose. When there is clarity, an organization can choose to have a significant social, environmental, and fiscal impact. The combination of these pillars aligns with our values, along with the other 2,932 certified B Corps around the world.

Success Rehabilitation is part of the community of businesses that have used a third-party verification of their impact. Use the free B Impact Assessment to evaluate your company’s impact on all stakeholders, including the environment, your workers, your community and your customers.

We have found that providing the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of an individual’s role and impact on the community encourages participation in the design of initiatives that strengthen community stewardship. We facilitate these understandings through collective observations in our community and environmental committees, which are tasked with the creation, implementation, and stewardship of programming throughout the company.

These committee members are entrusted to following established organizational core values and incorporate personal experiences in the design of a thoughtful corporate citizens program. This connection is key. These parties develop a sense of obligation to the communities they serve and are more likely to encourage the efforts of that community partner to better itself as well by supporting its activities.

Corporate Citizenship to Create Positive Outcomes

Building a corporate citizen program provides many benefits to mental and physical health. Participation in community-based activities can help to counteract the effects of stress, anger, and anxiety. It also can improve self-confidence and provide a sense of purpose, which enhance the quality of life for our clients and team members. Research suggests that having a favorable opinion on personal quality of life helps to sustain individual effort in recovery from mental or physical differences.

Our internal care team considers the framework of recovery capital when developing individualized treatment plans for our clients, who have all have sustained a brain injury. Research says that recovery capital is the entirety of all resources, internal and external, that can be used to sustain recovery and healthfulness. Social capital is a component of recovery capital, comprised of the sum of resources that each person has as a result of their relationships. Social capital works for marginalized populations, such as the brain injury community, because it is structured around interpersonal relationships that provide access to new opportunities.

When we integrate as corporate citizens, we enhance community and grow Success Rehabilitation.

At Success Rehabilitation, this provides us clarity to why we choose to engage in a corporate citizens program and to maintain our B Corp status. It helps our clients feel engaged and proud. It helps us further understand the importance of helping others in need. It breeds confidence in stronger, more supportive new communities and relationships. These relationships change over the life of a person and an organization, creating transformative new iterations of identity or, as in our case, clarity of purpose.

Becoming a B Corp was an essential component of Success Rehabilitation’s strategic direction. It is indicative of our commitment to a compassionate, clinically modern company that is a champion for the rights and protections of people living with brain injury.

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.