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Rio Terà dei Pensieri

A - DESCRIPTION OF THE GOOD PRACTICE

A1 - Title in original language:
RIO TERA' DEI PENSIERI

A2 - Title in English:

A3 - Location of GP (national)
Italy

A4 - Location of GP (regional)
Veneto

A5 - Economic field of activity
C Manufacturing

A6 - Ultimate purpose of GP

  • To address legal or financial exclusion
  • To improve social cohesion/inclusion
  • To create or conserve employment

A7 - Spatial scale
Local

A8a - Start date
1994

A8b - Anticipated end date (if applicable)

A9 - Short description of the GP
The Rio Terà dei Pensieri cooperative was founded by a group of volunteers to offer to people in jail an alternative to the cell, aiming mainly at their re-socialization by using the resources represented by volunteering. Over time, the activities have been developed with particular focalization on training and employment, considering them the main tools nowadays to make the users more responsible and to enhance their social inclusion. Rio Terà is a particular local reality. Using several activities of employment, it creates many oppurtunity for the detenees to learn a job and to realize themselves and also to create a sort of responsability of a life in law. In that way, when the prisoners finish the detention, they can enter in the society with a different awareness and a good degree of rehabilitation. The GP wants, as future objective, increases its market relationship to become more independent in its activities and to win its financial resources.

A10 - Key words relating to the GP
Rehabilitation
Training
Employment
Create responsability
Specific projects

A11 - Objectives of the GP
The objectives of the GP are focalized in the training and employment of the prisoners with the goal of providing an opportunity for prisoners to learn a job and to create in them the responsability of a life in law. The GP works with specific projects (see section below) and, for the future, wants to strenghten the online sales network and to increase the sale of cosmetic product in the hotel sector.

A12 - Activities that have taken place
"L'orto delle meraviglie" (the garden of wonders) where they produce a bio-plantation, cosmetic laboratory, graphic paging and screen printing, leather industry, glass cutting for mosaics.

A13 - Achievements of the GP
The GP achieve a small business setting, even with respect to the educational value with people in prison. The operators of the cooperative improved the responsability of the prisoners using precise rules.


B - IMPACT ON SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

B1 - How has the GP impacted on the following?

B1a - Legal/financial exclusion
Positive impacts
Any other comments?
Using the Italian law resources the GP implements innovative rehabilitation paths for prisoners and disadvantage people in general.

B1b - Creation or conservation of local employment
Positive impacts
Any other comments?
Thanks to the collaboration with the local agency responsable for environmental services, the GP gives the prisoners the chance to work on the territory with the company' employees.

B1c - Adaptation to new realities
Positive impacts
Any other comments?
In special reference to work inclusion of prisoners

B1d - Cross sectoral working
Positive impacts
Any other comments?
In the cosmetic lab workers dealt with all the product life cycle: from the cultivation of officinal herbs to the delivery of the final cosmetic product.

B1e - Enablement of social enterpreneurship
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
Being itself a social enterprise, Rio Terà contributes to spread out the innovative enterpreneurship model on the territory.

B1f - Amenities for local people
Positive impacts
Any other comments?
For the social impact of the activities carried out

B1g - Educational opportunities
Very positive impacts
Any other comments?
The GP organizes many training and educational activities in order to teach the prisoners how to work.

B1h - Crisis response Impacts
not known
Any other comments?

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 somewhat involved in governance
Comments and learning points

C2 - How influential has this GP been on local or national decision makers?
Reasonable degree of influence achieved
Comments and learning points
Rio Terà has a good relationship with Venice Municipality, the Regional Authority and with Prison of Venice but it's not provable that it has a clear influence on the decision maker process of these P.A..

C3 - How much partnership work has been involved?
A great deal of cross sectoral partnership working
Comments and learning points
Rio Terà takes advantages of the local network to provide work inclusion.


D - PR & TRANSFERABILITY

D1 - Please describe how the GP communicated its experience and success to the public
The GP does not carry out specific publicity activities but it promots itself with the success of their collaborations with local companies and public authority. Their good job is promoted using informal contacts within the local network.

D2 - Please describe how the GP communicated with local or national decision makers?
Rio Terà has a good relationship with the Municipality of Venice, with the Veneto Region and with the Italian Ministry of Justice with which they discuss about the operations in the prisons. The Ministry of Justice decided to renovate a room of the penitentiary which is now used as a laboratory. The Municipality of Venice and the Veneto Region have provided a contribution for the purchase of certain equipment useful for the production of cosmetics. The training courses for the work integration have been realized until now with ad hoc financing by the Veneto Region through specific calls for proposals aimed at the vocational training in prison.

D3 - Are there any elements of this project that you think would transfer particularly well to other contexts?
The idea of work rehabilitation of prisoners is the transferrable caracteristic of Rio Terà. For these people, work is an important opportunity to develop a sense of responsibility essential to the conduct of a life in law. Even if, when they finish to serve the sentence, they will not continue the learned job, however they carry with them the wealth of experience, the rules of life learned and the value of work.


E - RESOURCES AND SUSTAINABILITY

E1a - Total annual income of GP 2011/12
600.000,00 €

E1b - How is this made up?
€ 195.000 come from a direct procurement by the company VERITAS (Veneziana Energia Risorse Idriche Territorio Ambiente Servizi) according to the art.5 of the Law 381/1991.

E1c - Details of human resources
The current shareholding structure is composed of 28 to 35 members, all natural persons. The group consists of: 7 non-disadvantaged worker members, 4 of whom follow the work in the various laboratories and the job placement paths, an office worker, a salesman, and the President who is also director of the cooperative. The disadvantaged members are an average of 20 coming from the male prison and others (variable) who come from the female prison, plus five volunteer members.

E1d - Details of technology
The GP use a cosmetic laboratory for one of its activities. Also it has a laboratory that permits prisoners to develop skills in the use of graphic software to prepare the drawings and films that will be used by the screen printing laboratory.

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

E1f - Details of external support
The procurement by VERITAS gives the chance to place prisoners in the company, in alternative to detention and as ecological operators who work in the municipal territory. The GP deal with the social workers for external measures, while for the issues related to persons with drug-addiction, they communicate with the staff of the Local Health and Social-care Unit (ULSS) n. 12 which accedes to the prison. They are associated with Confcooperative, with the Zorzetto Consortium and the AERES Venezia Association for Fair and Sustainable Economy. The cosmetics laboratory was built thanks to the financing of the Ministry of Justice. The Region and the Municipality have provided a contribution for the purchase of certain equipment useful for the production of cosmetics.

E2 - If public funding were withdrawn, could the GP continue to exist?
The GP focus on activities that do not rely only on the public sector however they're facing some difficulties in overcoming the recent reduction of public spending.


F - EXECUTIVE BODY AND CONTACT INFORMATION

F1 - Who set up the GP?
Individual or group of individuals

F2 - Who runs the GP?
Individual or group of individuals

F3 - Short description/comments
The Rio Terà dei Pensieri cooperative was founded by a group of volunteers to offer to people in jail an alternative to the cell, aiming mainly at their re-socialization by using the resources represented by volunteering. Rio Terà is a Type B cooperative and its current shareholding structure is composed of 28 to 35 members, all natural persons.

F4 - Contact name Liri Longo

Rio Terà Dei Pensieri
S.Croce 495/B - 30135 Venezia
Italy
Telephone 041 296 06 58
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.rioteradeipensieri.org


G - SUPPORTING INFORMATION

G1 - Photos (between 1 & 3)


Silk-screening activity inside the prison
Silk-screening activity inside the prison


Leather lab inside the prison
Leather lab inside the prison


Cosmetic lab inside the prison

Cosmetic lab inside the prison

G2 - E documents
Detailed presentation of the GP

G3 - Any other useful information