STAGE

HOW SOCIAL IMPACT INVESTMENTS TRANSFORM SOCIAL ISSUES INTO A DRIVE FOR DEVELOPMENT, THROUGH THE INTEGRATED REGENERATION OF TERRITORIES

New social impact deposit account project: after Lights in the Park and Common House, we move on to the Cammino di San Francesco Caracciolo, in the section that connects Agnone (IS) to the Alto Casertano area.

The project “Active Territories for Welcoming Countries”"intends to undertake actions capable of impacting the progressive loss of competitiveness of the target territory: depopulation, aging population, infrastructure deficiencies, individual businesses often backward especially technologically, very short tourist seasons, inadequate accommodation offer to the new demand standards, absence (or inadequate valorization) of large attractions.
The project therefore aims to create a“widespread” tourist destination” One that is attractive to "cultural" tourism in the broadest sense (interested and attentive to history, art, nature, food and wine, traditions, etc.), possessing its own recognizable and marketable identity, and therefore capable of capturing new tourism trends. The project concept is characterized as an integrated project, capable of innovatively addressing the multiple critical issues that hinder the social and economic development of marginalized areas, from environmental to demographic.

That said, the aim is not to create yet another beautiful social project, one of the many that Italy, fortunately, is rich in, but to try to change the way social policies are made in Italy: no longer understood as a welfare approach, but as an opportunity for development; not as a mere cost for the benefit of a few, but as investment for everyone.

The main project aim is, therefore, to spread and consolidate a social impact investment model, starting from those already created in Tuscany and Naples.
The model is one in which, starting from the regeneration of the territory, it is intended to "“transforming the social into an engine of economic development”.
A development in which social issues are conceived not in terms of welfare, but as an opportunity to create wealth for a community, in the spirit of ESG sustainability and the circularity of people, resources, and knowledge, both old and new.
They may seem like "lofty" and therefore empty words, because they are too often used in a rhetorical and abstract way: the project, however, starts from other concrete projects already realized, with the aim of also restoring meaning and weight to those words.
The starting point is the development of an innovative project to enhance the places and people, often elderly, who populate the villages, particularly the inland areas, starting from the knowledge and traditions that have characterized those same villages over time.

Anything new?
Not in the activities, apparently, but certainly brand new in the path that must lead to the realization of the project and in the innovative financing method: no longer tied to public and/or philanthropic money, but to Italian private savings, which responds to the ever-growing needs. This project will in fact be financed by the interest paid by Ethical Bank to customers who subscribe to a dedicated deposit account and by Fondazione con il Sud, which believes this method is a valuable resource for addressing social needs and, for this reason, has committed to doubling the sums that Banca Etica customers will donate to the project through their dedicated deposit account.