Vivendi: Creating Joy

If you’ve ever played World of Warcraft or heard a Lady Gaga song, then you’ve experienced the kind of popular entertainment produced by Vivendi, one of the world’s leading communications and entertainment conglomerates. But Vivendi is doing more than just creating blockbuster video games and chart-topping music. Vivendi is investing in something truly powerful: creating joy.

The Vivendi Create Joy Fund, the company’s corporate responsibility program launched in 2008, focuses on “bringing joy through communications and entertainment to young people in need.” Already, Create Joy is supporting an impressive range of projects making an impact around the world. One example I love is a program in Africa supported by Create Joy that centers on a multimedia bus in Burkina Faso. This bus, called Biblio’Brousse, “offers basic training in computer skills and multimedia tools for young people aged 15-20, in partnership with high-school educational teams.” More than 3,000 people have been trained to date.

A little closer to home, the Vivendi Create Joy Fund has been providing HopeLab with funding to support the research and development of the next version of our Re-Mission video game. With support from Create Joy, we’re working with young cancer patients across the country, giving them a chance to collaborate with us on the design of the new game.

We’re proud to be part of the exciting mix of programs supported by the Create Joy Fund and wanted to shine the HopeLab spotlight on the great work Vivendi is doing to improve young lives. So whether you are wondering around WoW’s City of Azeroth, learning on a multimedia bus in Africa, or finding yourself humming along to “Just Dance,” remember that joy was created by Vivendi.