Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Gives Back to Local Communities Through Inaugural Company-Wide Volunteer Week

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Nov 26, 2012) - Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) engaged more than 1140 employees in over 100 volunteer projects globally as part of its first annual Volunteer Week this month. The company-wide week of service was designed to support local communities in HMH's 22 office locations all over the world.

HMH Volunteer Week projects were designed to engage employees and local communities around HMH's shared values and corporate citizenship pillars: giving voice to under-served populations; promoting access to new ideas; and removing barriers to success. The projects, which addressed a variety of community needs, included teaming up with Orlando Magic star Glen Davis to build a reading corner for a local daycare, teaching creative writing to 4^th graders at an after-school program in Boston, delivering meals to in-need families in the Chicago area, and rejuvenating a local hospital, zoo and community center facilities in office locations all over the US and in Ireland, Korea, China and Israel.

"As a company dedicated to lifelong learning, we believe in empowering our employees to drive social impact in their own local communities," said Mary Cullinane, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Social Responsibility, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "By encouraging and facilitating employee volunteerism -- particularly in education settings -- we look to help our employees better understand the challenges facing students and teachers today. It's one thing to have values as a company, but we must continue to work harder at demonstrating them."

HMH employees benefit from two days of paid time-off per year to engage in volunteerism activities of their choice. In the last year, HMH employees have tracked over 10,500 volunteer hours across 422 non-profits and community organizations. During Volunteer Week alone, over 4760 hours of HMH employee time were dedicated to serving local community causes.

The employee volunteerism program is just one part of a dedicated corporate citizenship effort at HMH, which includes a $60 million annual book donation program, employee/company gift-matching and local Community Investment Councils (CIC) in each of its major offices. Charged with identifying areas of need and creating opportunities for colleagues to have a positive impact on the local community, these employee-based committees host fundraising and volunteerism activities that align to HMH's corporate citizenship pillars.

To help facilitate volunteerism projects across its employee base, HMH leverages VolunteerMatch.com, a website that connects people with causes in their area and recruits volunteers for over 90,000 nonprofit organizations around the world. The platform also provides tools to volunteer project organizers enabling HMH to empower HMH employees to take a leadership role in planning activities for Volunteer Week.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is a global learning company with the mission of changing lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. Among the world's largest providers of pre-K-12 education solutions and one of its longest-established publishing houses, HMH combines cutting-edge research, editorial excellence and technological innovation to improve teaching and learning environments and solve complex literacy and education challenges. HMH's interactive, results-driven education solutions are utilized by 60 million students in 120 countries, and its renowned and awarded novels, non-fiction, children's books and reference works are enjoyed by readers throughout the world. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.