Rethinking the welfare system by experimenting with new services capable of regenerating the social fabric is the great challenge at the heart of the second edition of the competition for ideas "Welfare, what a business!" aimed at social start-ups under 35 called to present innovative projects capable of promoting social cohesion, development and networking.
The scenery
The main objective to be pursued through the establishment of a community welfare is to generate the conditions for a society of well-being, characterized not only by economic prosperity, but also by social relationships and the quality of services offered thanks to technology as an enabler of new business models and social entrepreneurship. Expenditure on social benefits in Italy stands on average around 28,6% of GDP, among the European social protection systems, the Italian one is one of the least effective. In 2015, according to ISTAT data, there were 1 million 582 thousand families residing in Italy living in conditions of absolute poverty, the highest number from 2005 to today. It is therefore necessary to trigger a positive response capable of facing the growing diffusion of people's vulnerability by involving all the players in the community and the resources present in the area through digital technology.
The call
The competition, promoted on the ideaTRE60 platform, by the Italian Accenture Foundation, the Bracco Foundation, the Golinelli Foundation, UBI Banca with the scientific contribution of AICCON and the Politecnico di Milano – Tiresia and the technical partnership of the incubators PoliHub (Milan), SocialFare (Turin), Campania NewSteel (Naples) will award the three best projects in the areas of cultural heritage enhancement and landscape conservation, social agriculture, cultural and inclusive welfare, personal services and community welfare. The projects must be capable of generating social and employment impact, have a highly technological connotation, be promoted on the territory through the creation of networks, be scalable, replicable and economically sustainable by responding to the principles of digital social innovation.
Fondazione Italiana Accenture, Fondazione Bracco, Fondazione Golinelli will reward the three best projects with a cash prize of 20.000 euros and with a prize of 5.000 euros for incubation. UBI Banca will make available to each winner a loan of up to 50.000 euro, at a 0% interest rate from the UBI Community line for non-profit entities, together with a Formula Impresa No Profit current account with 36 months of free installment. The winning projects will also be awarded a 4-month incubation course for coaching and further development of their project idea, curated by PoliHub (Milan), SocialFare (Turin), Campania NewSteel (Naples).
The promoters reserve the right to reward further project ideas in addition to the 3 above for a total prize money of the competition of up to 300 thousand euros. You have until 12.00 on 15 September to submit your project idea. Social start-ups under 35 that have been established for no more than 5 years (not after the closing date for applications of the competition on 15 September) will be able to participate in the call. To read the complete announcement: welfarecheimpresa.ideatre60.it
As Diego Visconti, President of the Italian Accenture Foundation underlines, “The second edition of Welfare che impresa confirms the commitment of three large foundations and one of the most important Italian banking groups in support of a new social entrepreneurship based on relations with the territory. We believe that young people - thanks to their ideas and their innovative spirit - can be the real protagonists of the social and economic development of our country. The goodness of this intuition represented by the award is confirmed by the arrival of a new partner of primary importance such as the Golinelli Foundation, which has always been committed to promoting the common good”.
"Supporting young talents is vital for the future of our country," said Diana Bracco, President of the Bracco Foundation, "and this is why we have been investing significant resources in the Diventerò project for years, and we enthusiastically promote the Welfare initiative that Impresa, which rewards start-ups with the best projects capable of responding to the needs of the reference territories. Since 2012, the Diventerò-Fondazione Bracco project for young people has grown a lot with no less than 1.100 applications between the ages of 19 and 35 and over 230 winners of scholarships and prizes. Of these, as many as 65% have a job today”.
“Fondazione Golinelli has been involved in education, training and culture for 30 years. With Opificio Golinelli, it reaches 150.000 visitors every year, especially young people and teachers, and recently launched the over ten-year Opus 2065 program to combine training with research and support for entrepreneurship. Due to this coincidence of vision, he decided to join this project: development also passes through social innovation and companies are agents of fundamental change for the ability to execute, above all when, in order to produce economic profit, an objective is associated which aspires to change with positive social impact. This requires patient financial resources and a cultural and scientific approach: a vision of entrepreneurial business and family foundations that identify the entrepreneurship education of the new generations as a fundamental lever for development" - recalled Antonio Danieli, director general of the Foundation Golinelli.
“Being among the promoters of Welfare che Impresa bears witness to UBI Banca's commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ideas of young people, which are fundamental for the development of our country”, comments Victor Massiah, Chief Executive Officer of UBI Banca. “An even more important commitment to social entrepreneurship, which is increasingly assuming a significant role in the economy. In the latest industrial plan, we have set up a new strategic area, called UBI Community, with the task of overseeing and developing the business areas and relations linked both to the world of the third sector and the civil economy and to public bodies and systems associative. The goal is to create more and more partnerships involving the public, private and social private sectors”.
