One Page Summary

Background and context - Our Solution, called "Social carpentry workshop Shape your future with wood", comes from the awareness of the need for a local craft business linked to woodworking. On the territory of Sasso Marconi there were several craft activities linking the working knowledge of the artisans with the needs of the citizens. Around the mid-1970s, the F.I.R joinery was established (Falegnameria Infissi e Riparazioni) founded by three artisan members. Over time it expanded up to 12 employees and moved to the craft area "S. Lorenzo" inside a large shed. Over the years, the joinery became a reference point in the building boom of the time, and represented a training school and a forge of skilled carpenters who became employees or small entrepreneurs. Then, during the crisis, the joinery was closed. The joinery is set in a building for craft use in the industrial area of Sasso Marconi close to the main road of the area. Surrounded by green fields, it covers an area of about 150 m2 with an internal height of about 6 meters. There are an independent entrance on an area allowing the parking of many vehicles and a courtyard area of about 700 m2 to be used as an external storage warehouse.
The proposed solution - COPAPS intends to take over the carpentry, adapting it to the current regulations on safety at work and renewing the woodworking machinery. To do that, they will make use of the professional figure of an expert carpenter and trainer already involved in this project preparation.
The new joinery will be one of the very few now present in the metropolitan area, integrating the newest technology of machinery with the traditional use of manual tools. It is initially envisaged to develop the following activities:
• Maintenance on carpentry works part of the heritage of the local municipality;
• Collaboration with a local consortium of cooperatives in the management and maintenance of wooden furnishings in public and private gardens;
• Collaboration with a local private company of the packaging sector;
• Training and traineeship.
Then, after the piloting phase, further, wider and different activities are envisaged, for guaranteeing the joinery sustainability in the long-term. These activities are already in a planning phase.
Target - All the Italian social cooperatives “B” refer, for identifying their target, to the widest definition of disadvantaged people (reg. EU n. 2204/02 supplemented by the reg.UE n. 651/2014). Within the framework of this wider EU definition, the Emilia Romagna Region has issued the law n. 14/2015 defining the "fragility profile" of a person and identifying a "fragility index", so that public services can take care of the persons identified as vulnerable. This project refers to both "certified" disadvantaged people who are COPAPS historical target, and frail and vulnerable people, who fall into the vast area of new poverty.
In the piloting phase we plan to hire a disadvantaged person with mental disease, and to activate the internship of 2 further people - long term unemployed and/or migrants, while within the first 2 years we will be able to hire one of the two trainees, and expand the internships in order to increase the number of new members of the cooperative, and/or support their self-employment out of the cooperative.
Involved stakeholders - For the creation of social carpentry, support has already been obtained from relevant players in the local socio-economic environment: a local public body, a company of packaging, a cooperatives Consortium, and the Social services for the selection and insertion of disadvantaged people. In addition to support during preparation and start-up, most of these stakeholders will be the first customers of the joinery, allowing its faster implementation and a lower entrepreneurial risk.
Competitors - In the metropolitan area territory almost all the artisan carpentries deal with furniture and windows, therefore the direct competitors are scarce. There are also some experiences of social carpentry, but seen only as a moment of training and creativity for adults and children, or inclusive space within social services, and not as real companies operating in the market (https://labasoccupato.com/2015/11/10/laboratorio-di-falegnameria-e-arte-lignea/, http://www.centroantartide.it/index.php/it/home-ita/8-news/713-green-asp-una-falegnameria-sociale-tra-umanizzazione-ed-integrazione).