BUSINESSES are being urged not to abandon their community work as part of their belt-tightening initiatives to beat the credit crunch.

With ongoing economic uncertainty, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) budgets are seen as a potential area to cut back and save money to invest elsewhere in the business.

However, Catherine Marchant, chief executive of enterprise education charity Young Enterprise North-East (YENE), is appealing to companies to be forwardthinking and to maintain their commitment to business people of the future.

“CSR might seem an easy budget to cut when the chips are down, but we are urging companies to see the benefits in keeping their community work going through the downturn,” she said.

“Most especially investing in our young people whilst still at school can help drive enterprising attitudes, which will impact not only on their future, but on the strength of the region’s future economy.”

She said that even though cutbacks may be made, businesses can still meet their CSR targets and concentrate on increasing profitability through staff training.

“We are hoping as CSR budgets are cut, that we can still encourage local businesses to support YENE by seeing the benefits to them in training their staff,” she said.