Study Visit in Veneto region – 11-12th April 2012

The 1st study visit was organised by the Lead Partner – Veneto Region on the occasion of Kick-off Meeting on 11-12th of April 2012. On the first day the partners get acquainted the Italian social economic system in the frame of 2 presentations. Mrs Franca Barison introduced the social cooperative system in Veneto, which explains the Veneto legal framework with regard with particular reference to the Law 381/91 which regulates the "Type A" and "Type B" cooperatives. As 2nd presentation the "Project CSR Veneto, working together for the Corporate Social Responsibility" was introduced by the Director of Unioncamere Veneto Gianangelo Bellati.

On the 2nd day 2 organisations for social enterprises were visited on site and the participants had the chance to contact with the managers and get answers for their questions. The 1st station was "Consorzio in Concerto" in Vedelago as one of the Italian Good Practices (read more here), which is an example of Social Productive Cluster consisting of Social Enterprises characterized by the inclusion of disadvantaged people. 4 sites of the consortium were visited by the partnership: 1/ Solidaria cooperative, which produces machineries for industry, in particular antennas for televisions, dealing with all the intermediate production steps. 2/ L'Incontro Industria cooperative has two main production lines: in one of these it produces coffee machines, in the other it designs and produces equipment to improve the work and the production system of other eneterprises. The other production line deals with the design of lamps and other domestic items. 3/ Eureka cooperative is a laundry that deals with cleaning and sanitizing of the clothing and linens of all the rest houses the Venetian territory. 4/ Campoverde is a social cooperative farm certified in organic production. There are 25 hectares of producing vegetables, raising pigs and also chickens.
In the 2nd half of the day the "Consorzium Cento Orizzonti" was presented in Castelfranco. The organisation showed a new Social Entrepreneurship models coming from European projects experiences. Cento Orizzonti was born from the EQUAL initiative "Osmosis" with the aim of including profit and non profit enterprises and creating a positive working side-effect in the territory. Thereafter Noi cooperative was introduced to the audience as active member in the "Cento Orizzonti" Consortium. The main activities of NOI are: 1) activities for some private firms (Geox, Benetton, etc.) which consist of administrative support services, registration, bookkeeping, printing, press releases, services to customers and on the occasion of events.

Read more here.