The Regenerative Strategy of the New Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation
Among the Initiatives is the Virtus Lab Project, which Has Already Helped a Thousand People Enter the Workforce
By Mario Agostino – July 14, 2021
An original and innovative model based on ‘generative restitution’: this is what the Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation proposes. A model developed through multiple years of high-impact experiences across the entire country, through which the Foundation acts as an intermediary so that multiple corporate social responsibility projects, professional services, and financial donations can converge in the creation of high social impact works, fighting against unacceptable social hardship. Among the most notable is the Virtus Lab Project, which has already involved more than 1,000 people, ensuring employment for 80% of them through a free qualified service offered to companies struggling with recruitment for vacant positions. A program that offers the unemployed the opportunity to train for free and create a professional profile aligned with the needs of companies looking to hire. Successfully implemented in Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, and Calabria with the support of UCID, Virtus Lab addresses the serious discrepancy between job supply and demand, namely the frequent misalignment between companies’ employment needs and the characteristics of the available workforce. Of great evocative and cultural impact, as well as material significance, is the announcement of the agreement and related technical execution for the renovation of the nave of the Basilica of San Vitale and Companion Martyrs in Fovea, Rome, presented by Paolo Fusaro, general director of Mieci Spa, which supports its implementation, and Emanuele Miceli, CEO of SIM Ingegneria, who handled the design. The nave, like the Foundation, will be dedicated to Antonio, a twelve-year-old boy of extraordinary solidarity and altruistic sensitivity who, in 1998, had his life cut short on a sunny summer afternoon in a makeshift soccer field in the Calabrian outskirts; improvised, like in many other forgotten areas of the too many ‘worlds of the south,’ without any respect for basic safety rules. From Antonio, another innocent victim of a preventable tragedy in one of the many neglected facilities intended for children, emerge the Foundation’s directives, explained on the occasion by the promoter and founder, his brother Francesco Augurusa: “In particular, education and social inclusion, within the broader spectrum of humanitarian cooperation aimed at equity and equal opportunities.” Following the motto ‘Charitas omnia vincit,’ the Foundation channels in this perspective the particular inclinations that Antonio cultivated in his brief existence: towards sports, for the love of which he became a victim; the environment, towards which he always showed an innate vocation for care and for which constant educational and cultural commitment is necessary; and art, an area in which he immediately revealed an evident passion.
