East Manchester is not a place that easily attracts positive headlines. In 1971, it had 34,000 jobs. In the next quarter of a century, 20,000 of these disappeared. One in ten of the area's unemployed has never had a paid job. Well over a third have been out of work for two years or more. There is, in any case, locally a general lack of the right skills - particularly IT, basic literacy and numeracy - needed to get the jobs which do exist. Wages are low and a survey two years ago revealed that over half of East Manchester's households depended on benefits.

It has not been a particularly easy place in which to grow up either. Nearly one in five children achieve no GCSEs. Nearly seven out of ten under-5s suffer from dental disease and the under-16 conception rate is one of the highest in Britain.

And to complete the picture: in some areas, whole streets are virtually empty and abandoned. Fear of crime is the most significant concern for local people.

Supporting the task of the regeneration of East Manchester is one of the prime reasons behind Guardian Media Group's decision to be a major sponsor of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The current investment in world class sports facilities in the area is not only helping to revive the local economy, but will leave long-term benefits for the community once the Games are over. Our focus is less on an international sporting occasion than on support for an initiative which will not only help to rebuild East Manchester, but is designed to promote employment and education, help young people in particular, strengthen multi-cultural relations, and contribute towards real improvements in local community life.

Those overall aims form a distinctive thread, which runs through the community policies of the Group and its companies. We continue as a founder sponsor of the Teaching Awards and Tools for Schools, as well as supporting the New Deal programme of job opportunities for longer-term unemployed people, Business In The Community, and the Media Trust, which provides media resources to the UK voluntary sector in partnership with the communications industry. In addition, the Guardian Foundation, which seeks to help the cause of good journalists and good journalism around the world, has continued its work during the year, from Eastern Europe, through the Balkans, to Africa.

But as in Manchester - the birthplace of the Guardian - many of our partnerships are with our neighbourhood communities. In London, for example, in Clerkenwell and Islington, on the doorstep of the Guardian's main offices, volunteers underpin financial support through the Guardian/Observer Community project by building lasting relationships with organisations working in the education field, tackling homelessness, helping the elderly, as well as those involved in a wide range of arts-based initiatives. All of these activities are based within a 15-minute walk of the Guardian Newspapers' offices. Community Service Volunteers not only help train those within GNL who wish to help, but help monitor the development of educational projects.

A £50,000 donation to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson girls' comprehensive school has drawn in nearly £1.5 million additional funding, enabling a high-tech language complex to be built on the site. To ensure that the development progresses smoothly, GNL has put together a team of senior executives to act as an advisory panel to the school's managers to provide them with a range of project management skills. At the Richard Cloudesley special needs school, nearly 30 volunteers have worked with students on reading, web-building, horse riding and music and a Guardian cartoonist also ran a five-day cartoon workshop.

GNL operates a £10,000 matched-funding scheme and for every pound a member of staff raises, the company matches it up to £100. Mencap, Salford Women's Aid and a number of local schools are among organisations that have benefited so far. In addition, GNL plans to enable the public to have a direct involvement in its new £3.6 million archive centre, which will also be the home of a curriculum-based resource available to local schools, as well as others nationally. The company is also a core funder of the award-winning Newspaper Education Trust (NET), based at our West Ferry printers in London's Docklands. NET operates like a newspaper newsroom, but is designed specifically for primary and secondary schoolchildren. A £20,000 contribution makes it possible for 20,000 pupils a year to spend a day covering live news stories as they break, while learning ICT, literacy and office skills. GNL's classified sales department provides free advertising for some of the community scheme charities, such as Streets Alive and Tools for Schools, but also, when space is available, for other organisations such as VSO and the Leukaemia Research Fund. The sponsorship and events department offers bursaries for 30 places on social conferences that it organises. The people department has also started working with Workable, a charity which brings together employers with skilled disabled people who are unable to find work.

Manchester Evening News' staff continue to support the Wood Street Mission, which provides clothes for poor children, household goods for their parents, plus food and toys at Christmas. They also support úLifeshareî during the Christmas period by loaning them two vans for 12 days to distribute food, etc. to homeless people.

The owners of the Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust, also meet on a regular basis to make donations to local good causes.

All of the Group's local papers support their communities with a range of initiatives. After the recent race riots, the Oldham Advertiser launched an úI believe in Oldhamî campaign in a bid to bring communities together and also help to rebuild the town's image. Thousands of car stickers bearing the campaign message have been distributed throughout the area. In Reading, the Evening Post was shortlisted for two awards for its campaigning community work.

Trader Media Group is committed to an intensive policy of community support and many individual TMG staff raised funds for charitable causes. Working with the Duke of Edinburgh's Outward Bound scheme, Trader Media sponsored a trip to Wales for 40 children from Berkshire schools. Ten of the children had never been on holiday before.

More information about GMG-wide community work, and in particular, about the part played by individual members of staff, is published in our annual report to employees. If you would like a copy, please write to the Chief Executive, 75 Farringdon Road, London EC1M 3JY, or visit our website at www.gmgplc.co.uk.