Community Involvement

“Always remember that our company was built on three principles: the quality of our services, being fair to our employees, and being good corporate citizens.”  This is the philosophy and guiding principle that is ingrained in the corporate culture of The Bartech Group.  This statement was written in 1954 when our Chairman Emeritus, John W. Barfield, founded the Barfield Companies.  For over 30 years The Bartech Group has been and is quietly making a difference.  Stated below are a few of our community-based activities.

Bartech Clean Water Initiative

This is our newest social initiative, launched during the first half of 2008.  According to Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, “The stark truth is that every 15 seconds a child dies as a result of disease related to unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation.”  The mission of this new humanitarian program is to improve the quality of life and provide health care, clean water, food, education, disease control and other essential needs primarily in Africa, Haiti and other developing countries.  Specifically, we are funding the construction of wells that will provide clean, safe drinking water to adults and children currently forced to drink unsafe, contaminated water.

Share Products Program

John W. Barfield, Bartech’s Chairman Emeritus, founded the Share Products Program in 1992 to provide assistance for homeless Americans.  Share marketed 26 items of food and other consumer goods through Meijers, Kroger, Spartan and other national retail chains across the country.  One hundred percent of all profits received were contributed to the Salvation Army and other agencies in the form of free nights’ lodging and meals for homeless Americans.  Mr. Barfield worked solely as a volunteer and received no salary or other remuneration for his work.

Spaulding for Children

John W. Barfield has been on the Spaulding for Children board of directors for nine years, and is Chairman of the Endowment Development Committee.  Spaulding for Children, headquartered in Southeastern Michigan, is the only agency in the United States that specializes in finding and training adoptive families for special needs children, most of whom are minorities.  Spaulding has found homes for more than eight hundred children since the agency was founded in 1968.  Most of these children have been neglected or abused, and have lived in foster care homes an average of seven years prior to placement through Spaulding.

Eight years ago Mr. Barfield organized a $5 million endowment fund drive for Spaulding.  In 2001, the goal was achieved due in large part to a few large “anchor” gifts he personally solicited.  The $5 million raised will provide adoption and related services for 100 children each year in perpetuity.  In 2008, Mr. Barfield is launching another major initiative to facilitate the adoption of a significant number of children.

Polio Eradication Program

Since 1985, Rotary International has worked to raise funds to eliminate polio throughout the minority populations of the Third World.  The Rotary Foundation has given more than $200 million to purchase a five-year supply of polio vaccine.  More than one hundred Third World nations have received grants, resulting in 600 million children being immunized.  To assist in completing the Foundation’s work to completely eliminate this disease throughout the world, John W. Barfield proposed a fundraising program through his local Rotary Club to immunize one million children for over five years at a cost of $360,000.

Program to Assist the Development of Career Opportunities for Detroit/Pontiac Youth

The Company has been an initiator of numerous programs designed to assist minority youth in the development of engineering and other career opportunities.  The most notable of these programs was one developed to assist Detroit/Pontiac youth.  Our first program, the Bartech Cooperative Drafting Training Program, was in operation from 1983 through 1988.

For this program, Bartech operated a 12,000 square foot drafting training school in Warren, Michigan, for minority high school graduates who expressed an interest in pursuing automotive design as a career choice.  The program was successful in that over 90 percent of the trainees were residents of Detroit/Pontiac (those who most likely would not have had the financial wherewithal to pursue a career in engineering).  More than 80 percent of our students graduated from the program, which was underwritten by General Motors.

Supporting African American Artists

Bartech proudly displays in its corporate and branch offices a collection of original works by Detroit and Michigan-based African American artists.  Our program not only helps provide a market for up-and-coming artists, but also highlights their achievements by “telling our story” to those who visit our facilities.  Among the artists we support are Shirley Woodson, Paul Collins and others.  Our entire collection was organized by and purchased from two African American art galleries, the Sherry Washington Gallery and George N’Namdi Galleries of Detroit, Michigan.

The Bartech Group is also a sponsor of numerous other community-based activities and organizations, some of which include:

• Boy Scouts of America
• Epilepsy Foundation
• International Association for Organ Donation
• NAACP
• National Association of Black Suppliers Association Scholarship Fund
• National Kidney Foundation
• Rainbow Push Coalition
• Tomorrow’s Child-Michigan SIDS
• United Negro College Fund
• YES Foundation

Bartech Staff Community-Based Activities

All members of the Bartech family of associates are encouraged to participate in community related events and activities.  Bartech’s Quality Operating System, Striving Toward Excellence Process (STEP), encourages and recognizes Bartech employees for the time and generosity shown toward the communities we serve.  Following are a few of our employee-based activities:

Dress for Success

This program helps women who cannot afford to purchase business attire for job interviews.  Our employees donate suits, blouses and accessories to help unemployed women return to the workplace.  The program is ongoing; last fall we collected more than 35 business suits.

Barat Child and Family Services

Bartech employees help celebrate Christmas for the benefit of 24 abused or neglected girls who live at the Barat House in Detroit.  Not only do we donate personal gifts for each girl (pajamas, robes, slippers, underwear, jewelry, hair and toiletry items), but we also provide the Barat House with towels, sheets, blankets, pillows, rugs, comforters, books, games, and enough grocery store gift certificates to provide Christmas dinner.   They also receive gifts throughout the year, including on birthdays, as well as are engaged in various activities.

Other activities include the following:

• Salvation Army - Coats for Kids
• American Diabetes Association 
• Christmas in April
• American Heart Association

Further, Bartech Group executives are integrally involved in many other organizations that benefit the community, including the Ronald McDonald House and the Detroit Historical Society, which operates the Detroit Historical Museum, Dossin Great Lakes Museum and Old Fort Wayne.