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FARE INSIEME CHARITY - Ep. 7 – Fondazione Futuro ETS, to give hope to those who need it the most

«People, with our help, have entered various sectors from metalworking to services»

28/11/2024

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The Associazione Futuro Onlus was established in 2015 with the willingness of Chairman Pierluigi Bancale, which was converted into Fondazione Futuro ETS in 2022. The mission of the Foundation is to offer concrete help to marginalised people or to those at risk of exclusion, through social and educational tools, which are useful for these individuals' self-realisation through work aimed at their full reintegration in society. Lucrezia Lanzani interviews Pierluigi Bancale, chairman of Fondazione Futuro ETS for FARE INSIEME Charity
FARE INSIEME CHARITY is the spin-off of the FARE INSIEME project dedicated to the presentation of some onlus and non-profit associations with roots in the area around Bologna, Ferrara and Modena and that carry out extraordinarily important and crucial work for the entire community. Here are some of their stories

by Lucrezia Lanzani*

“Future: what will be or will come later; which, compared to the present, has yet to happen, as opposed to the past.” It is the year 2015, Pierluigi Bancale and his wife were watching an interview on television, with a former worker of an industrial butcher shop in Milan. The interview spoke of a man who lost his job at the age of 52 and saw his life fall apart: unable to pay the mortgage, he lost his home, went to live with his in-laws with his wife and children, slept in his car because there was no room in the house, the marriage ended and his life fell apart, so much so that he was forced to start relying on Caritas to receive meals. «Coming from studies in an Anglo-Saxon religious school, I thought about the concept of 'giving back': at a certain point in life, grateful for what I was able to achieve as an entrepreneur, you think about giving back something that life has given you to those who may need it. So we created Associazione Futuro Onlus as a charity organisation of my company Generali Via Emilia Est, formerly INA Assitalia, of Modena, always associated with Confindustria, which was transformed in 2023 into a Foundation to guarantee a future for itself as well as for its beneficiaries», begins the chairman Pierluigi Bancale.

Fondazione Futuro ETS (Third Sector Organisation) was established immediately with a single employee, the Solution Manager Diletta Naldoni, still present today, supported by two collaborators, the psychologist Paola Ventura and the designer and expert in the non-profit world Simona Maiocchi. The mission identified is difficult, because it concerns seriously unemployed people over 50 years old who have been left without work and are poorly qualified to return to companies, which are increasingly close to “ageing” with their employees, who soon, due to longevity, will include three different generations. «We help people of a low target, who belong to a mostly outdated job market, who however show the desire to return, despite having almost lost hope. The collaboration with Confindustria Emilia Area Centro and the associated companies is an extraordinary driving force for our projects: it often gives us the space or contacts to organise our courses, thanks to which, from 2021 to today, we have helped about ninety of the 298 people who have turned to us, to obtain mainly fixed-term contracts, some of which have become permanent», Bancale points out. The courses are part of “The Rediscovered Talent” (Il Talento Riscoperto) project (started in 2021), two per year, lasting six months; the beneficiaries have the opportunity to listen to the advice from entrepreneurs or HR managers and to follow digital literacy lessons, as well as having support, listening and advice from our psychologist. The topics covered vary greatly: from writing a cover letter or your CV, to understanding how to face an interview; carrying out group activities to understand the importance of your skills and nurturing the relationship with companies, which are often led by entrepreneurs associated with Confindustria Emilia Area Centro and interested in the topic.

Before this, Fondazione Futuro participated in other projects, such as: “The Hidden Talent” (Il Talento Nascosto), in collaboration with the unions and with Porta Aperta; “Three Steps” (Tre Step), together with the Istituto Charitas of Modena, an initiative created to accompany severely disabled people through the three steps, i.e. three steps to communicate with the outside world; or the project with Porta Aperta named “A Village to Grow” (Un Villaggio per Crescere) to provide books needed to educate disadvantaged children and families, helping them understand that there is also a playful part of life. «Over the years we participated in what we call “smile operations” (operazioni sorriso). Once, for example, we helped a Roman family of a teacher over 50 years old, with an unemployed husband of 60 years old and a thirty-year-old daughter with a cognitive disability: they had not had electricity for six months and hot water for a year and a half: we made them a donation to wish them a merry Christmas. Or, we helped raise money to build a stair lift in a family’s apartment building with a disabled child who lived on the second floor. We also helped a worker pay for a year’s worth of insurance for the car he needed to get to work. But it wasn't enough, something concrete was missing, we understood that we could do more, hence the various Futuro projects», says the chairman of the Foundation.

To date, Fondazione Futuro ETS manages to work well despite the costs and is mainly supported by the founders. «Donations are growing every year, but there is still a long way to go. We continue to organise evenings to self-finance; the last one in 2023, in conjunction with the flood in Romagna. We decided to divert the funds intended for us to a flooded reception facility in the province of Forlì. We also recently held an event on the sustainability report at the Modena headquarters of Confindustria Emilia Area Centro, to raise awareness of the Foundation and suggest to include support for one or more of our projects in the sustainability reports», adds Bancale. Fondazione Futuro is also participating in a call for proposals by the Lazio Region to open a branch in Rome, and satisfy the great demand in the area. «People, with our help, have entered various sectors from metalworking to services. We want to give a future to those who need it the most and entrepreneurs help us a lot in this, because doing business increasingly implies feeling a social responsibility. After all, without profit there can be no non-profit», concludes the chairman of Fondazione Futuro Pierluigi Bancale.

*Lucrezia Lanzani is a student at the Steam Emilia High School. She is seventeen years old and has always been interested in social issues. She has been volunteering for three years in different organisations in her community

https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/

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