Fondazione Cattolica strengthens the "Bando delle idee" and allocates two million euros, double of 2018, for the launch of new social enterprises. This was decided by the institution's Board of Directors, which met in the headquarters in via Adua in Verona, and chose to allocate one million euros more to the programme which accompanies the birth of these new initiatives, encouraging their growth to respond to the needs of the elderly, families, the disabled and the new poor. If in 2018, thanks to the tender, 215 new job opportunities were created for people who were excluded from them, in 2019 the goal is to further increase them.
The Council also outlined the areas of intervention for 2019 to which the resources made available by the next Cattolica Shareholders' Meeting will be allocated. 60% of the available funds will be reserved for social assistance activities; 15% to cultural activities of significant social value; to education, instruction and training 15%; 10% to study and research. The guidelines are the result of a constant dialogue which
Fondazione Cattolica has established with the realities of the national territory in which it operates: a direct relationship which has also allowed the institution to monitor and analyze the results of the actions implemented in its 10 years of activity, and which have led to the construction of a new intervention model.
La Foundation led by Paolo Bedoni since 2011, has developed a new vision, a paradigm shift that has led the institution to transform its model from the mere donation of contributions to a support platform for social realities seeking to achieve autonomy and economic sustainability. Among the objectives for 2019 there is also the evolution of Progetto di Vita, the social responsibility initiative launched by Cattolica in 2012 and which in recent years has listened to and guided over 7.500 young people. It will be transformed into an incubator aimed at social initiatives proposed by young people as part of the Call for Ideas. The aim is to create a context in which start-ups based on social innovation can take off. In 5 years, Progetto di Vita has laid the foundations for the launch of 10 new initiatives born from young people: 9 of these have grown year after year, such as the QUID social cooperative, a business initiative born in 2013 from the commitment of five young Veronese passionate about sustainable fashion.
Today it is a company that has achieved a turnover of 3 million euros and has created over 100 jobs, mainly employing women, over half of whom have a history of fragility behind them. You will also undertake to start a series of educational and training initiatives starting from children. In fact, 200 euros are earmarked for training projects in the Catholic preschools of Verona, which represent 80% of the city's educational offer. 100 euros will be directed to Grest, i.e. the activities that NOI parishes and clubs in Verona offer to children during the summer. In 2018, the Foundation supported 148 real Grests educational workshops in which over 22 children took part followed by 7.700 young educators. In 2019, other training interventions aimed at young people will be launched, currently being studied with some of the associations that belong to the "Contagiamoci" network that the Foundation has created since November 2017, bringing together a total of 140 organizations from all over Italy.
“In 2018 alone, Fondazione Cattolica helped reintegrate more than 200 people who were excluded from it into the labor market – explained the president Paolo Bedoni -, a clear sign that the road taken is able to reactivate the economic fabric in a social key, generating a value higher than that of the capital. The institution represents Cattolica's main tool in the field of corporate social responsibility, supporting the communities and territories in which it operates. It wants to be a generator of development, helping people, associations and social enterprises to grow, in order to create a virtuous path within our territories. Furthermore - he continued - we must continue to support training activities to offer development and growth opportunities, also in a social key, to our young people, as is happening with the Catholic kindergarten project and the activity in the Grest parochial".
“When you combine skills and values, the typical efficiency of the profit world with the social sensitivity of the non-profit, the results are surprising – said the general secretary of the Adriano Tomba Foundation -. Social activities become generative and their impact on the needs they address increases exponentially. Fostering social enterprise was the key adopted by the Fondazione Cattolica to transform donations that risk creating dependency into investments that generate freedom. An important freedom for all those who wonder about the future of welfare in the face of growing needs and shrinking resources”.
