#youth
The needs of the younger generations are the focus of special attention for our Foundation. We support youth development through actions promoting employment, social values and growth opportunities. We are more than just a funder, we are a driver of ideas.
Here are some examples of our efforts:
NEETwork: a youngster at your Nonprofit Organization
NEETwork is a project designed to ease employment for young people aged 18-24 years, who for varied reasons quit education prematurely and, due to their lack of adequate skills or previous job experience, are excluded from the labor market, so-called NEETS i.e. young people Not in Employment, Education or Training. In Italy, there are over 2.4 million NEETs, of whom 930,000 with no more than lower secondary education. In the Italian region of Lombardy, there are 260,000 young individuals who are Not in Employment, Education or Training. Fondazione Cariplo has set in motion alliances, new strategies and processes of accountability to tackle this issue and stem its steady growth.
Cariplo Factory: the fruit of Fondazione Cariplo’s pinpoint strategy
After numerous initiatives and projects having the youth, employment and innovation at their centre, as a way to enable growth and multiply effectiveness of efforts, Fondazione Cariplo decided to create a physical space where various players in its constituency could work together. A big home dedicated to youth creativity at a facility provided by the Milan Municipal Administration. A venue intended to become the landing place of innovation projects and startup development, with the ambition of bringing about 10,000 job opportunities for young people. Not by chance Cariplo Factory was situated within BASE Milano, a new breeding ground for culture, innovation and business development, to promote synergies and creation of opportunities for young people. What Cariplo Factory is set to do is building in Milan an open innovation eco-system with critical mass where innovation and growth are triggered by the cross-fertilization resulting from bringing together small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations, high-tech businesses, social enterprises and undertakings in arts and culture, business incubators and accelerators, universities, research organizations, formal and informal education and training institutions, fablabs, professionals and investors. Initially covering an area of 550 sq m to be expanded to 1,500 sq m, Cariplo Factory is a tangible reality in which Fondazione Cariplo has already invested €10 million over a period of three years.
Tandem Europe: 30 organizations selected for their culturally innovative projects
More than 160 organization applied for Tandem Europe, an initiative promoted by the Amsterdam-based European Cultural Foundation to build international collaborations of European cultural organizations. After careful assessment of the culturally innovative projects co-developed by tandems, a panel made up of representatives from MitOst, the European Cultural Foundation, Bosch Stiftung, Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Fondazione Cariplo selected 30 organizations to participate in the program. The program entails moments of training and of joint work (in tandems or extended to the entire community of participants) as well as sharing the results of the experience with the communities of the local organizations involved in it. Among the participants there are 6 Italian cultural managers.
IC-Innovazione Culturale (CI -Cultural Innovation): imagining and creating new ways of being engaged in the cultural sphere
The first step is having a good idea. The second step is being able to translate it into practice. 30 excellent new ideas selected for funding among those submitted under the third CI call for proposals will now have the chance to be brought to fruition, laying the groundwork for the development of innovative projects. Under its three CI calls Fondazione Cariplo received as many as 962 proposals engaging more than 3,000 people, and granted €2.5 million to 22 undertakings in the cultural sphere, helping them create jobs that harness youth creativity and passion.
Green Jobs: youths and the green economy
150 businesses signed up to the initiative, 91 traineeships already started; 20,000 questionnaires on young people and green jobs administered; 60 schools engaged, 49 business simulations made and 990 interviews conducted in schools; 50 entrepreneurial ideas that came from schools; a Service set up to facilitate matching of green jobs supply and demand; a campus named ReStartAlp established in collaboration with the Garrone Foundation to promote young entrepreneurship in the Alpine region. These are just some of the figures and achievements of Green Jobs, an initiative started in 2015 to promote employment opportunities for young people in the environmental sphere. The initiative has been unfolding along two main lines: providing education and training for high-school kids, and facilitating employment in the green sector for young people.