Disability no reason to be excluded
FIEGE has called to life an innovative inclusion project in Nagarole Rocca. RED: Responsabilità e diversità – Responsibility and Diversity – is the name of the project that is dedicated to the employment and inclusion of by now eleven people with disability at the Italian facility.
The FIEGE location in Nagarole Rocca which was completed in early 2020 is, technically speaking, one of Italy’s most advanced logistical centres. But even here, it is the people who fill the building with life and keep operations going. “We wish to offer our roughly 1,600 employees a working experience which encompasses social responsibility, integration, and inclusion”, says Marcello Casalini, Branch Manager at FIEGE Nagarole Rocca.
To further consolidate this, FIEGE – together with the Italian association of people with Down syndrome, the AIPD – brought to life RED (Responsabilità e diversità), a project that is dedicated to the employment and inclusion of differently-abled people. The second partnering organisation on board is La Sfida. The parental initiative campaigns, amongst other things, for the emancipation of people who are differently abled and for whom financial autonomy is therefore crucial. “The goal of the project is to help differently-abled people to gain access to employment opportunities”, Casalini adds.
Specific training
At the start of the project, experts evaluated the skills of those partaking in order to personalise the most suitable working steps for each and every one of them. In parallel with this, a team comprised of psychologists trained the professionals and managers on site. During over 80 hours of training, those involved dealt with subjects like inclusion and the professional advancement of people with disabilities. “To enable their daily arrival, we set up a shuttle service from the station in Mantua to our logistical hub in cooperation with APAM transport services”, the Branch Manager explains.
Additional roll-out planned
The project’s pilot phase took off in late summer of 2020 and was extremely successful. In the meantime, eleven colleagues with Trisomy 21 are employed at Nagarole Rocca and are fully integrated into the process flows and the team. “We wish to thank everyone involved who accompanied and advanced this project with so much dedication and passion. The goal in the near future is to introduce RED at other locations in Italy”, Casalini emphasises.
