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Other initiatives for the community Poste Italiane favours the participation and involvement of local communities.

Poste Italiane favours the participation and involvement of local communities by means of several initiatives involving entities and associations, schools, hospitals and all those local organisations able to favour occasions for aggregation, inclusion and solidarity in the territory.


PROJECT P.A.I.N.T.

Project P.A.I.N.T. (Poste e Artisti Insieme Nel Territorio) [Poste, and Artists together in the territory], Poste Italiane, through a national contest launched in June 2016, which also took place in 2017, selected young street artists to paint 22 works on the external walls of as many Post Offices distributed throughout the nation.

Having the objective of redeveloping boroughs and making Post Offices lovelier places, the artists found inspiration, in the Company’s desire to evolve and in the social and cultural themes linked to the territory, to realise their work, making the social role of Poste Italiane and its proximity to citizens and locations the fundamental elements of the P.A.I.N.T. project.

From Ronchi dei Legionari to Pantelleria, the walls of Post Offices were thus transformed into white canvases on which the artists painted murals representing hope, dreams and desires of a changing Italy.

The integrated communication project began with the walls of Post Offices and arrived at reaching all, or almost, the most modern channels of communication, bringing about the realisation of:
  • 19 Murals (the last 3 Post Offices are being completed);
  • a mini–series with 8 Episodes, produced by Sky which was broadcast on the Sky Art channel;
  • activities on the social channels of Poste Italiane;
  • media relations activities (16 national and local TV broadcasts - more than 100 local articles);„„
  • a website, paint.posteitaliane.it, telling about the project and describing its stages;
  • inauguration events for the single projects which involved local communities and authorities.
P.A.I.N.T. was awarded in the “Corporate Art Awards” sector – organised by LUISS Business School with the support of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism, as well as backing from the Presidency of the Republic, Confindustria, ABI, Museimpresa and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - so as to increase the visibility and reputation of the projects capable of forming a bridge between the business world and the world of art, in which 80 companies participates from 18 countries.


PROJECT FICO: FABBRICA ITALIANA CONTADINA [ITALIAN FARMER FACTORY]

Project F.I.CO. (Fabbrica Italiana Contadina) concerns the creation, within the Agro-Foodstuff Centre of Bologna (“CAAB”), of a complex in which to concentrate the excellence of Italian wine and food in a direct relationship of production, commercialisation and supply. To be specific, Poste Italiane outfitted a space of about 430 square metres which, apart from being equipped with free Wi-Fi, offers all postal services, from shipments to payments, financial services to insurance services. The peculiarity of this Office is the offer of a packaging and shipment service of purchases made in the park, 7 days a week from 10:20 to 22:00. The service is called “Heavy shopping? Travel light” and allows products acquired in the theme park to be packed and sent to your home.


PROJECT FATHER CHRISTMAS’S MAIL
 


Federico writes from Amatrice and is one of many children putting their thoughts and wishes down in black and white in the famous letter to Father Christmas.

From Lombardy to Sicily the famous tradition linked to “Father Christmas’s Mail” took place again, it is part of the initiatives aimed at consolidating the Company’s value for citizens by promoting is social and educational role.

Starting from November of each year, the project entails initiating an operational and logistic process in which dedicated personnel carry out sorting and collection of paper letters addressed to Father Christmas in the postal centres all of the country and prepare and send a reply to the letters, even without stamps, bearing the sender’s full address. The letters delivered in a letter box included a themed gadget and a digital game created for children. There is also a web page to request a reply to the letter written by the child online. For collective requests from schools there is a network of contact people who coordinate the initiative in the district. In relation to the “Father Christmas’s Mail” project, writing kits a special Christmas boxes have been installed in 250 Post Offices so that children can write and send their letters using an App.

The project has evolved over the years to keep abreast of the times, flanking the traditional paper reply forms of communication with digital online forms according to the new multimedia consumer habits of families. The initiative involved schools, hospitals and local associations, favouring several occasions for aggregation and solidarity in local communities, recording, in 2017, a significant participation with wholly respectable numbers: 49 events all over the land, 2,150 children involved from schools, more than 200 thousand letters received (+20% compared to 2016). The letter includes an invitation to freely download the App “Father Christmas’s Alphabet” through which children can make letters and create animated designs.


CONTEST – NEW UNIFORMS FOR POSTMEN/WOMEN

In 2016 Poste Italiane launched a context dedicated to making new uniforms for postmen/women, challenging students from all the most important universities and institutes of design and fashion. The prize for the winning school is an award consisting in a scholarship worth 20,000 Euros for achieving masters or specialist courses in Italy or overseas. The restyling of the uniform is signed by Beatrice Bazzano, a twenty-two year old student at the Pontedera Modartech Institute.

The pilot project lasting 30 days began in February 2017 to experiment the new uniforms: the postmen/women of Merano (BZ), Cavalese (TN), Courmayeur (AO) and Cuneo (CN) were the first to wear the new kit of workwear realised according to the design which won the context. The pilot project will allow Poste Italiane to thoroughly assess the yield of the new materials in the uniforms. The new clothing efficiently interprets the operational needs of postmen/women, imaging a particularly practical and comfortable outfit both in the winter and summer version, rich in details useful for daily working life of postmen/women.

In order to promote this initiative, Poste Italiane realised a dedicated communication campaign to give visibility both to schools and students, also creating the #postestyle hashtag to make the project more easily recognisable and promote an exchange of information and opinions through social networks.

The contest for ideas about the new uniforms for postmen/women confirms the Group’s commitment in the framework of a process of corporate change and development in progress and represents an important factor within the wider concept of corporate social responsibility aimed at supporting the talent of young students.
The activity of coordination continued in 2017 between Poste Italiane and the national Civil Protection, following a sequence of earthquakes which involved Central Italy and the island of Ischia. Poste Italiane was inserted into the national Alert System for tsunamis caused by earthquakes which ensures that alerts are received and managed, sent out by the Civil Protection Department.

The Company is the recipient of alert messages issued by the Situation Room Italy of the national Department of Civil Protection and is included in the main instruments for national emergency rescue planning against seismic risk, the hydrogeological risk and emergency plan for the Vesuvius - Flegrea area, ensuring an activity of information and prevention in the territory.
The rebuilding of Central Italy after various seismic events occurring between August 2016 and January 2017, is set in line with the objectives of various non-profit organisations, amongst which the Italian Red Cross, based on an analysis of the necessities and vulnerability of the communities affected by the earthquake. In fact, it is considered that promoting social resilience in the hit areas is the result of a whole of synergic actions able to create a climate of trust to restore relations that were lost.

There were also actions aimed directly at the Customers, such as suspending payment of the monthly instalments for loans received up to a maximum of twelve months in order to deal with the situations of economic hardship.

Following the collaboration between the Italian Red Cross and Poste Italiane, it was possible to plan various interventions within the seismic crater. Investments were identified for infrastructures in three Italian municipalities strongly hit by the earthquake:  
 
Norcia Realisation of a multifunctional centre with gaming-recreational centres dedicated to sport and other
activities favouring the meeting of generations.
attività che possano favorire l’incontro tra generazioni.
Arquata del Tronto Preliminary works preparatory to the Memorandum of Understanding to build a Multifunctional Centre.
Amatrice Amatrice is the symbol of the earthquake which brought Central Italy to its knees in August 2016.
For this reason, precisely in this place, apart from initiatives to reform the economic and social
fabric, it is particularly important to remember the centre before the quake and celebrate the great
expression of solidarity.
The objective of the “Museum of memories” project is to keep the historic, architectonic and cultural
memory of the Municipalities affected by the earthquake alive. A construction that was also testimony
to the many interventions by volunteer rescuers who supported and helped the populations through
the difficult hours and in the days after the quake.

Furthermore, in relation to the actions supporting the populations hit by the quake, the Company intervened in favour of its employees involved, issuing 45 subsidies to people suffering serious damages.
Project “saving that teaches” was created in 2014 following a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Poste Italiane, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, in which the parties undertook, for the following three years, to promote initiatives of awareness about the culture and value of savings in primary and secondary schools. Students from the second level secondary schools were involved through launching a video contest to describe their idea about savings.

In late 2017, the Memorandum was renewed, with a five year duration to launch the project by means of conceiving a training programme: the objective is to provide young people, from all educational levels, with economic-financial skills and of citizenship required to use savings as an instrument of development for the country.

The second and renewed edition of the project has, as its scenario, a world in fast and continuous change in which Poste Italiane e Cassa Depositi e Prestiti want to take action to prepare young generations to build their future through putting forward initiatives aimed at education and responsibility.

Therefore, by promoting a dynamic, ethical and value related vision of savings as an instrument of progress and wellbeing for all, there is a contribution to building an aware, active and participatory citizenship.

Furthermore, the programme is part of the “National strategy for financial, insurance and welfare related education” having the task of promoting and planning initiatives of awareness and financial education, favouring the collaboration of public and private subjects.

The conceived path, in its three phases, develops life skills such as:
 
  • empathy, creativity, ability to communicate, spirit of initiative, team work;
  • orientation to results, innovation and change;
  • ability to put oneself forward and solve problems, choose and take decisions.

The critical assessment of the topic “savings”, promoted by the project, develops the ability to make critical and responsible consumer choices, considering the different associated variables and repercussions on the country system as a whole, in terms of saving resources but also economic progress and work opportunities.

In support of the comprehension and development of the skills of teachers and students, instruments and activities were devised to be carried out in the classroom and at home, differentiated by primary schools, first level secondary schools and second level secondary schools:
 
  • online instruments (dedicated portal with student/teacher areas with videos, online games, discussion walls/forums);
  • offline instruments (didactic kits including methodological guides, boxed games, albums, magazines, posters).
Philately is the art of collecting stamps and philatelic products. There are countless types of stamp collections, amongst which: topical issues, postal stationery and first day envelopes.

From this viewpoint, Poste Italiane has developed, in recent years, a series of initiatives aimed at relaunching the value of Philately, with special care regarding aesthetics of the philatelic products, by means of constant graphic research allowing the interest of new generations of collectors to be gained.

In an exhibition held in 2016 at Palazzo Quirinale, “Women” was the theme on the stamps of the Republic of Italy with particular attention to their contribution to national history. In 2017 the exhibition became mobile and was shown in the ten big cities of Italy hosting “Philately Spaces”.

In the wake of the artistic connotation of Philately, for the first time in Italy, in 2017 a philatelic lithography was realised having as subject matter the painting by Filippino Lippi “Madonna e Angeli”, one of the most famous round renaissance paintings in the history of Italian and global art.

The cultural divulgatory mission of stamps is corroborated by the realisation of explanatory leaflets which accompany the philatelic issues and which can be defined as the cultural manifest of every stamp issue by the Italian Government.

Relevant cultural and museum institutions were also celebrated with stamps, such as the Historical Museum of the Force of Carabinieri, that of the Financial Police and that of the Liberation. A special mention must be given to philatelic products connected to the issue dedicated to the Treaties of Rome which represent the basis of the current European Union.

Lastly, the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Italian Institutional Charter was celebrated with a stamp, for Poste Italiane this was a highly significant moment to give the right emphasis to the founding values of the Republic.

On this passion common to many individuals, Poste Italiane decided to create two projects dedicated to socially sensitive categories: the youngest of age and prisoners.
Project “Philately and Schools” has the objective of bring youngsters closer to stamp collecting, a passion that consists in enriching knowledge and represents a healthy management of free time. Through Philately, young people can develop transversal abilities, such as observation, reflection, order and collaboration, acquiring - by means of the game - historical, geographic, scientific and artistic knowledge.

This origin of this initiative lies in the Memorandum of Understanding stipulated between Poste Italiane and the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research on 26 January 2006, reviewed and signed in October 2017 in a new version which contemplates, as already mentioned, the introduction into the Company of School-Work Alternation. The memorandum allowed primary and secondary schools to be contracts to guide the values linked to the world of stamp collecting and its interconnections with subjects of study in the indicated scholastic cycles.

Project “Philately and Schools”: scholastic year 2016-2017
 
Territorial Area Branch Institutes Class Number of pupils
North East 4 16 22 490
North West 9 9 14 395
Lombardy 7 12 37 815
Central 8 17 33 913
Central North 9 29 67 1678
Central 1 4 4 14 220
South 3 4 7 334
South 1 2 2 5 151
Sicily 5 6 133 2693
Total 51 99 332 7689
This project of a social nature originates in relation to the development and circulation of stamp collecting, having the precise purpose of helping prisoners in the process of rehabilitation and reinsertion into society with activities aimed at re-socialising them by means of continuous relations with the outside world.

The idea of developing and educational project in prisons came about in 2010 on the impulse of a group of prisoners in Bollate who had a passion for stamps and autonomously formed a philatelic circle within the structure housing them.

Through Philately the participants in the project have the possibility of exploring topics on the most diverse subjects such as history, music, art, geography and religion, all seen through the intrinsic value that a stamp holds within it.

On the basis of this experience in Milan in 2013 a memorandum was signed between the Department of Penitentiary Administration of the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Communications of the Ministry of Economic Development, the Federation among Italian Philatelic Societies and Poste Italiane, thanks to which similar projects were launched in other prisons.

In particular thanks to the project, prisoners can:
  • develop transversal abilities, such reflection, order and collaboration;
  • be facilitated in gaining historical, geographic, scientific and artistic knowledge;
  • increase their level of socialisation; participate in the educational and re-educational purposes of the prison;
  • regain those healthy values pertaining to Philately.

The project involved 17 Institutes: Turin, Novara, Genoa, Milano Opera, Milano San Vittore, Pavia, Venice, Padua, Trieste, Volterra, Prato, Firenze Sollicciano, Firenze Gozzini, Roma Rebibbia and Pescara, followed later on by Latina and Paliano.

In this context the Ministry of Justice and in particular the Department of Penitentiary Administration, undertakes to favour the insertion of Philately in prison institutes, by means of interventions of support and awareness by its own territorial structures.

The Federation between Italian Philatelic Societies and the Italian Philatelic Union support the project by providing technical material and trainers assigned with managing the training of tutors as well as volunteers already working in the prison, who in turn develop projects in contact with the prisoners.

The phases of the project envisage:
 
  • the establishment of a philatelic circle in the single member Institute;
  • the involvement of prisoners in the realisation of a collective collection which becomes the common asset of the circle;
  • the organisation of training courses for tutor volunteers (identified among the prisoners of particular interest and sensitivity) who in turn perform activities of awareness and circulation of philately among the prison population;
  • the organisation of philatelic events within the prison, activating an ad hoc philately services for special postmarks;
  • exhibition of the prisoners’ works during philately events outside of the prison.

In promoting such project, Poste Italiane also realises manifestations aimed at prisons, promoting the constitution and development of internal philatelic circles and supporting the activity by means of realising dedicated kits for trainers and participants, as well as special postmarks and dedicated postcards.