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Consortium In Concert

A - DESCRIPTION OF THE GOOD PRACTICE

A1 - Title in original language
CONSORZIO IN CONCERTO

A2 - Title in English
CONSORTIUM IN CONCERT

A3 - Location of GP (national)
Italy

A4 - Location of GP (regional)
Veneto

A5 - Economic field of activity
S Other service activities

A6 - Ultimate purpose of GP
To create or conserve employment
To improve social cohesion/inclusion
To enable cross sectoral working

A7 - Spatial scale
Regional (large scale)

A8a - Start date
The first cooperative was born in 1991, the consortium in 2002

A8b - Anticipated end date (if applicable)
ongoing

A9 - Short description of the GP
"In Concert" is a set of 22 social cooperatives, of which 5 are social welfare (or type A) and 16 work placement (or type B), plus a consortium of purpose for investment property called "Areas of Solidarity". The activity of the group is divided into 4 main areas: social welfare area, agricultural area, industrial area, service area. In the social welfare area there are: Ca' Speranza, L'Incontro, Nuova Vita, Orchidea, Orchidea Infermieri. In the agricultural are there are: Ca' Corniani, Campo Verde, Cantieri. In the industrial area there are: Accordi, Aurora, Incontro Arreda, Incontro Industria, Sentieri, Solidaria, Cantieri. In the service area there are: Cucina e Sapori, Enercop, Eos, Eureka, I Cerchi, Quartieri della solidarietà, Via Vai.
the Consortium is organized to cover all the main services areas with its typical entrepreneurship spirt.

A10 - Key words relating to the GP
Job placement of disadvantaged people
Rehabilitation
Social care
Support for public bodies and big enterprises
Several kind of activities

A11 - Objectives of the GP
The initial concept from which the Cooperative began 20 years ago was the dignity of the person, possessed by all and thanks to the consciousness of which all must become independent, even in respect to public assistance: to make this possible, the people followed by the Consortium must then be able to get a job and a salary. At that time the cooperative worked then in collaboration with the Public Administration, with which an agreement was reached in a way that rehabilitation was the responsibility of the State and the work would have been obtained comparing the market.The method of the Consortium is to rehabilitate people with these disorders by removing them from the traditonial day care centers, where they often lose time and don't find a way to fight effectively against the problem at its root, and by letting them re-enter the employment market . These persons are not required to do all at once, but only to respect the rules and the others. Only later the rehabilitation itself will start, with the acceptance of the experience.

A12 - Activities that have taken place
The 16 cooperatives are divided into 4 macro areas and they are fully present in the market and think like enterprises, even if the social cooperatives are regulated by the Law no. 381 of 1991, which divide them into 2 areas: Type A cooperatives, which deal with care and social care; Type B cooperatives , which deal with job placement. About the area of social welfare the cooperatives deal with disability services and care for the elderly with specific project. About agricultural area they involv in organic production and rearing of animals. They have a farm and some lab opened to schools. About industrial area they involve in assembly and pre-assembly of small equipment and wiring. Also they build custom workbenches and deal with multi-function control of security. About service area they have many field of activity: maintenance of green areas, installing solar panels, production and delivery meals, laundry and linen hire, cleaning services, energy management or real estate associates and removals.

A13 - Achievements of the GP
This cooperative reality is becoming increasingly prominent in Veneto, rather, it's becoming the most important reality in the region for what concerns the economic and job placement of disadvantaged people, if not from an economic perspective altogether. The initial concept from which the Cooperative began 20 years ago was the dignity of the person, possessed by all and thanks to the consciousness of which all must become independent, even in respect to public assistance. The "In Concerto" Consortium is a happy island: 200 people certified as disadvantaged by the Consortium, have been lifted from public health care and entered the labor market, despite being considered by the Health Local Unit as very serious. For example, some of these people have a history of 300 days of hospitalization and several suicide attempts behind them: in other words, they may be classified as people with mental disorders.


B - IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

B1 - How has the GP impacted on the following?

B1a - Legal/financial
exclusion
Neutral impacts
Any other comments?

B1b - Creation or conservation of local employment
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
The acivity of rehabilitation, in the philosophy of the cooparatives, provides that people followed by the Consortium must then be able to get a job and a salary. The beneficiaries have been lifted from public health care and entered the labor market, despite being considered by the Health Local Unit as very serious. The core of the consortium objectives is the job.

B1c - Adaptation to new realities
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
The method of the Consortium is to rehabilitate people with these disorders by removing them from the traditonial day care centers, where they often lose time and don't find a way of social inclusion and by letting them re-enter the employment market. The activities of the Consortium are very up to date to contribute to cover the needs of the people in an enterpreneurial vision.

B1d - Cross sectoral working
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
The GP is a great example of cross sectoral working because they move from rehabilitation activity and job placement to agricultural and industrial areas to arrive at the service topics. In every sector, also, with the necessary specifications, you can find all the stages of the production cycle.

B1e - Enablement of social enterpreneurship
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
In Concerto is a clear example of the growth of the social enterprises. The objective of In Concerto is precisely to "attack" the market. Even if the President has not an entrepreneurial background but rather socio-cultural, starting from the concept of human dignity he set the activities of the cooperative and later of the consortium as a support work for the public bodies and big enterprises. And in these cases, he adds, working is possible only by helping them to cut the costs, otherwise the cooperative will forever remain at the margins. Currently, no worker in the Consortium is temporary and clients are more than satisfied with the work that is done.

B1f - Amenities for local people
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
The several kind of activities of the GP are all adresses to the quality of life of people and their welfare so local people can anly benefit from the consortium.

B1g - Educational opportunities
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
The GP focuses its activities on education and rehabilitation using labor as social inclusion.

B1h - Crisis response
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
Despite the present economic crisis, in 2011 the Consortium's social cooperatives have gained 8% more than in the previous budget year, and the aim for 2012 is 10%. An example of the solidity of this strategy is the fact that Nestlé has commissioned the Consortium to produce components for automatic coffee machines. The attack of the market allows you to combine social goals with the enterpreneurial impression that the consortium has certainly.

B1i - Local financial environment for social enterpreneurs
Neutral impacts
Any other comments?

B1j - Local policy environment for social enterpreneurs
Neutral impacts
Any other comments?

B1k - National financial environment for social enterpreneurs
Impacts not known
Any other comments?

B1l - National policy environment for social enterpreneurs
Impacts not known
Any other comments?


C - PARTNERSHIPS & GOVERNANCE

C1 - Is the governance of this GP fully inclusive?
Beneficiaries are highly involved in governance
Comments and learning points
The Consortium In Concerto employs many people respecting its philosophy of rehabilitation towards work inclusion.

C2 - How influential has this GP been on local or national decision makers?
Reasonable degree of influence achieved
Comments and learning points
The cooperatives worked in collaboration with the Public Administration, with which an agreement was reached in a way that rehabilitation was the responsibility of the State and the work would have been obtained comparing the market.

C3 - How much partnership work has been involved?
A great deal of cross sectoral partnership working
Comments and learning points
The structure of the Consortium and the several activities that it proposes shall ensure that the partnership work is very involved. The consortium was created to bind the cooperatives that have long worked together, starting to build a network of solidarity and services internal and external to the local community


D - PR & TRANSFERABILITY

D1 - Please describe how the GP communicated its experience and success to the public
The promotion of its activities is done towards the high quality of the services offered that creates an important network of contacts.

D2 - Please describe how the GP communicated with local or national decision makers?
The Consortium worked in collaboration with the Public Administration. It made an agreement with Public Authorities that was reached in a way that rehabilitation was the responsibility of the State and the work would have been obtained comparing the market.

D3 - Are there any elements of this project that you think would transfer particularly well to other contexts?
The variety of activities carried out by the consortium and their socio-business optic are all transferable in other context like example of the enhancement of social enterprises. A special feature can be considered that, since 2006, the Consortium In Concerto adopts the proposal of L 'Incontro for the establishment of a "Solidarity Fund Consortium" means internal financial aid to cooperatives, with the aim of financing projects to safeguard the work , through moments of corporate crises and promote new employment opportunities. In each concrete socio-worker pay ten cents for each hour of work (every year more than one million hours worked in the consortium). To manage the fund has been constituted a Committee of Presidents of the member cooperatives, also participate in the fund, with an annual contribution, including the towns of Castelfranco Veneto and Vedelago and the Cooperative Credit Bank of Treviso. The money collected is given away to the cooperatives as needed and in the form of loan or equity capital. In recent years they have been collected, and invested nearly 700 thousand. Here our social intelligence manifests itself in the "front" of the In Concert, when workers are self-taxing, to help each other in case of need, the actual meaning of mutuality appears in all its evidence.


E - RESOURCES AND SUSTAINABILITY

E1a - Total annual income of GP 2011/12
€ 50.000.000

E1b - How is this made up?
Being a social enterprise, the GP has public funding for its acivity but the enterpreneurial assect of the cooperatives gives to the consortium the possibility to be independent for a good part of its financial resourses.

E1c - Details of human resources
The presence of the Consortium In Concert is very important for the economy of the territory, since it employs nearly 1,300 people of which 215 are disadvantaged and the type A cooperatives involved in their care process and rehabilitation more than 1000 users.

E1d - Details of technology
In its industrial field they use many technological tools for the assembly and pre-assembly of the equipment.

E1e - Details of financial investment for start-up/early stage
None to date

E1f - Details of external support
None to date

E2 - If public funding were withdrawn, could the GP continue to exist?
The public fundings are important for all social enterprises but the enterpreneurial approach of the GP gives to it the opportunity to reach itselself the financial resourses. So even if the public funding were withdraw the GP continue to exist maybe with some initial difficult of liquidity. It should be stressed that with the "Solidarity Fund Consortium", instrument of internal financial aid to cooperatives, the consortium tries to cover some financial needs to safeguard employment in moments of crisis business.


F - EXECUTIVE BODY AND CONTACT INFORMATION

F1 - Who set up the GP?
Not-for-profit organisation

F2 - Who runs the GP? Partnership (please give details)
In Concerto is a set of 22 social cooperatives: 5 are about social welfare (or type A) and 16 about work placement (or type B). In the GP there is also a consortium of purpose for investment property called "Areas of Solidarity". It can be found the complete list of the cooperatives above, in section A9.

F3 - Short description/comments

F4 - Contact
Bruno Pozzobon
CONSORZIO IN CONCERTO
Via Ospedale, 10
31033 - Castelfranco Veneto (TV)
Italy
Telephone 0423 721418
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.consorzioinconcerto.it


G - SUPPORTING INFORMATION

G1 - Photos (between 1 & 3)
MESSE project partners meet on the field the employees of a social enterprises
MESSE project partners meet on the field the employees of a social enterprises

MESSE project partners meet on the field the employees of a social enterprises_April 2012
MESSE project partners meet on the field the employees of a social enterprises_April 2012

MESSE project partners meet on the field the employees of a social enterprises_April 2012
MESSE project partners meet on the field the employees of a social enterprises_April 2012

G2 - E documents
English presentation of Consorzio in Concerto

G3 - Any other useful information