The project BIL – Gross Internal Welfare, supported by the Foundation with the South involves 65 people in detention and 8 project partners located in 3 Regions of Southern Italy – Apulia, Campania and Basilicata. In these territories, Officina Creativa wants to replicate the model of “regenerative economy” developed through the social brand Made in Carcere, so to create new jobs, transfer their skills and experience to other cooperatives and associations, and assess the social impact that these activities generate on multiple levels – individual, community and environmental.
In particular, the areas of intervention of the BIL project are the following:
Work reintegration: Officina Creativa intends to export the Made in Carcere business model and disseminate the good practices acquired in the last decade of activity, to employ in a stable and continuous way, the realities of the textile and agri-food sectors. Therefore, through the collaboration between Officina Creativa and its partners, 65 subjects in detention will be able to participate in the training processes and some of them will also enjoy a subsequent job hiring.
Creation of a “Social Academy”: Creative Workshop proceeds to the training of trainers ensuring that associations and cooperatives present in the territories of reference the use of multi-thematic training courses with the aim of studying the model “Made in Carcere” and apply it in its context. These training activities will focus on various topics, such as social, environmental and economic sustainability, as well as in-depth analysis on topics such as waste disposal, personnel management, administration, etc.
Definition and monitoring of BIL – Gross Internal Well-being: through collaboration with universities and research centres, Officina Creativa intends to give an academic definition and therefore a scientific value to BIL. This index, which is social and environmental, as well as economic in nature, would cover not only the limited participants but also the stakeholders in the project in question.
In relation to the above-mentioned research project, Officina Creativa has established a Scientific Committee – defined by Luciana Delle Donne “Group of Essays” – which aims to bring together the interdisciplinary skills necessary for the identification of benchmarks and indicators useful for the assessment and measurement of the impact generated by the actions carried out by the Cooperative and the project partners in the environmental field, and social.
This empirical research, however, needs scientific support to provide valid and comparable results, indispensable to improve the operating model and make it applicable in other contexts beyond the confines of prison, as already started with the latest projects of Creative Workshop, such as the Social Tailoring of Suburbs and the Social Academy.
The BIL – Gross Internal Wellness project therefore foresees, as a natural evolution of the current activities, the creation of a Research Center called CROC – Research Center Creative Workshop.