Work has started and in the building that once housed the former Enaoli colony for small orphans, in Rispescia in the heart of the Maremma Park, today a bio-osteria, a music rehearsal room for young people and a point for training and for cultural activities.
But the main innovation of this experience lies in the fact that the "Luci nel Parco" center is actually taking its first steps thanks to the contribution of 616 subscribers to a specially launched deposit account, which provides for a liberal donation to the project. Memberships were three times the estimated target, and the amount of the first coupon, detached in January, is almost 86,000 euros. The second coupon will mature in July 2020. A new financial instrument with a social impact that Tuscany is experimenting for the first time with this experience.
The project was announced last September as a 'pilot' initiative under the banner of collaboration and social innovation. Its objective is the regeneration of a public building that Ente Terre Regionali Toscane, on input from the Tuscany Region, has granted for use to Luci Aps. The innovative ideas don't end there. Management involving citizens and associations is envisaged. Finally, once launched, the center in the park should be able to generate income for the benefit of the entire community.
“The value of the project clearly goes beyond the recovery, albeit important, of a building – explains the councilor for the presidency of Tuscany Vittorio Bugli, speaking in Rispescia at the press conference during which the point on the initiative was made -. The idea is to create jobs so that the newly employed will have an income to spend which will also benefit other local economic activities. The tourists of the Park will be able to enjoy it. By offering work to the most vulnerable people, the center will also be an opportunity for integration and participation and will consequently make the whole area safer".
“But the real innovation of this project lies in the financing method - continues Bugli -, provided for by the law on the Third Sector, and which sees a contribution from citizens through the subscription of a security with a social impact: the saver who subscribes to the deposit account, receives half-yearly interest equal to 1%, and undertakes to donate 0.25% as a donation, which is deposited in the dedicated current account in the name of the Luci association, owner of the project”.
“This experimental project – concludes Bugli – stems from a process which over the years has seen the participation of the entire community through various members of the social and private sectors and aspires to be a replicable model, due to the positive economic and social effects”.
The "Luci nel Parco" center, conceived by the Ethical Foundation together with Caritas, the Tuscany Region and Confindustria Toscana Sud, "provides for all those innovative features of social impact design", explains Paola Caporossi, vice president of the Ethical Foundation.
"It was conceived not to make yet another beautiful project - underlines Don Enzo Capitani, president of Luci Aps -, but to become a new model of making social policies".
The construction site was opened in the last week of January with the dismantling and safety measures for the systems and fixtures. Some of the internal walls have been demolished. The request for estimates for the construction works and for the supply of the equipped kitchen has been initiated. The bio-osteria will be able to use zero-kilometer products and will be managed by the social cooperative "Solidarietà è Crescita".
The final cost of the center is estimated at 300,000 euros. The progress of the works and the use of donations will be reported online on the website www.luciaps.it, from the end of February.
