Valuing and respecting the delivery person is a priority for iFood. The Brazilian technology company has been expanding its support tracks for these partners since 2021. First, with educational opportunities – ranging from basic education, with the program My High School Diploma, even professional courses (through the Tech Power It is iFood Takes Off) and offering scholarships for higher education.
At the beginning of 2023, the program expanded Delivery of Advantages to guarantee greater health, safety and support points across the country for delivery professionals.
In June, the company went further and began to proactively make available a Legal and Psychological Support Center to support delivery drivers in cases of offenses, aggressions, expressions of prejudice, harassment and incitement to violence. Assistance is offered through a partnership with Black Sisters in Law, a global association of black lawyers that operates in all Brazilian regions, providing personalized and humanized service to each case.
Now, iFood opens up another path to empowering these professionals: the iFood Chega Junto Notice.
The idea is for iFood delivery partners to present projects that have a positive impact on the category and can improve the lives of these workers.
Proposals can be registered free of charge between August 1st and 31st at Delivery Portal. A judging panel made up of guests from different institutions will select up to 25 initiatives, which will receive financial contributions of between R$ 10 thousand and R$ 100 thousand, totaling R$ 1 million investment in the projects – which must be carried out by December this year.
The notice is open to individuals and legal entities. The suggestions presented must be based on three pillars: education and opportunities; respect, pride and self-esteem; and well-being, health and safety.
Project formats can be varied and include, for example, workshops, courses, lectures, conversation circles, meetings, fairs and exhibitions, among others.
Johnny Borges, director of Social Impact at iFood, spoke with iFood News about the objectives of the iFood Chega Junto notice and how it can strengthen the communities of the company's delivery partners. Check out the chat below.
iFN – How is the notice aligned with the journeys that iFood has already been building in support of delivery drivers?
The notice was born from a demand from the delivery drivers themselves, who dreamed of building their social actions and projects, but lacked financial resources. Over the last two years, in listening groups, we have noticed this demand, coming mainly from groups of united delivery people who wanted to undertake social initiatives, such as actions in daycare centers in their communities, for example.
These are projects focused primarily on valuing and respecting the category, which go beyond operational work issues and challenges, but involve positioning and a deeper look at the category.
This fund goes a long way in connecting with all of iFood's education actions, such as the high school program for delivery drivers. It is another initiative by the company for the category to put its full potential into actions and projects that can be extremely specific or continuous and everlasting.
It's another way to train delivery drivers and ensure that they have an increasingly established formal education, providing opportunities and financial resources for them to develop all the skills they learned both in their day-to-day deliveries and in the academic training that we work directly with them. in our education programs.
iFN – The notice appears to be strongly related to one of iFood's public commitments in education: to prepare people for the future of work and entrepreneurship. That's right?
A major challenge that a large part of the population faces, and which is not exclusive to the delivery community, is having an initial financial contribution to develop a project or action, even to test it. And when we think about training for entrepreneurship, the view that the delivery driver is, in and of himself, already an entrepreneur in his daily life is very strong, which does not prevent him from seeking other ways of doing business.
It may even be that the project that a delivery person is going to execute at this moment does not have to do directly with his personal entrepreneurial dream, but it is a chance to make something that is on paper or in his head come true. It is an exercise to develop this entrepreneurial capacity. The objective, in this case, is to give the delivery person the empowerment to execute something, in the sense of undertaking.
We want to deliver this to society, through the group of delivery people: to enhance the development of a more entrepreneurial career. And the notice is very effective in valuing and respecting the category from the point of view of the delivery people and not iFood. It's the delivery man doing it for the delivery man, the 'us for ourselves”.
The objective is not for delivery people to become project proposers, but for them to be able to put their initiatives into practice. These are often actions that they already carry out today and that we will help them to professionalize, providing these people with training, execution tools and financial resources.
iFN – What types of action would these be?
Today, they already carry out traffic safety actions, for example. There are groups of delivery people who explain the importance of installing the kite-cutting antenna, who distribute this type of antenna, who carry out leafleting activities on how to treat the delivery man. Others lead initiatives to take delivery drivers for medical examinations, for example, and offer collective help in cases of possible difficulties and unforeseen events faced in the daily journey.
These are projects that we can already think about enhancing, as well as podcasts, YouTube channels and school support initiatives. Delivery people know, like no one else, your real needs.
ohnny Borges: "The notice aims to give delivery people the chance to create projects that enhance and respect the category"iFN – What will the project selection criteria be like?
We will select up to 25 projects and each one will have between R$ 10 thousand and R$ 100 thousand for execution. For those chosen, we offer basic training in project management, communication and budget management, in partnership with Semente Negócios.
The external evaluation committee will pay attention to the potential impact, relevance and ability to carry out and budget adequacy of each project. The Road Safety Observatory, Black Sisters in Law, Fundação 1Bi and Avus, a health partner of ours, are already part of this committee.
The members of the committee were chosen according to the axes of proposals defined for valuing and respecting delivery people: education, respect and well-being, health and safety. Committee members are experts on these topics.
iFN – Today, iFood has a psychological and legal support center to support delivery drivers in relation to problems that have already occurred, especially those linked to discrimination. Is it possible to consider that the notice is intended to act in a preventive manner, anticipating situations rather than remedying them?
The idea is the same: needing to use less and less of the legal center. The notice really has this intention, of giving delivery people the chance to create projects to value and respect the category, which will help them reduce episodes of discrimination, for example.
