LATI, an industrial reality in the Varese area, showed its closeness to the non-profit Piatti Foundation by involving its employees in the "Cuore a mille challenge" project with the aim of raising awareness of the issue of disability and autism.
Vedano Olona, July 2022 - The one with Renato Piatti Foundation is the largest social project planned by LATI Industria Termoplastici for 2022. A project that aimed to involve the entire corporate population. Three challenges and nearly 4 million steps together. But let's go in order.
LATI Industria Termoplastici, founded in 1945 in Vedano Olona by the Conterno family, is today one of Europe's leading manufacturers of technical thermoplastics for engineering use. It is a family business in its third generation; CEO of the company today is Michela Conterno.
For LATI, being a family business also means being socially responsible and having a long-term vision. The company guarantees employment stability and is integrated into the territory in which it operates. Profit for LATI is not an end but a means to create Common Good and have positive impacts on the community and society.
Fondazione Renato Piatti Onlus is a Non-Profit Organization of Social Utility established in Varese by the will of some members of the local Anffas (Association of Families of People with Intellectual and/or Rational Disabilities) for the purpose of designing, implementing and managing services for people with intellectual and/or relational disabilities and their families. The territory of reference is Lombardy, here the Foundation operates in the health, integrated social health and social welfare fields. The 16 supply units present in the provinces of Milan and Varese are divided into day, residential and rehabilitation centers for children and adolescents. Today the Foundation cares for about 600 people with complex disabilities and autism ranging in age from 2 to 84. The approach that takes into consideration the peculiarities of the individual is based on the recognition as a person of those with disabilities according to the paradigm "person with disabilities, not disabled."
The friendship between LATI and the Foundation is a shining example of inclusion - a journey made together for a few years now, since 2018. It has come a long way, so why not also involve LATI employees in this journey, those who with their work and thanks to the enlightened leadership of the CEO help support the non-profit organization?
Thus was born the "Cuore a mille challenge" (Heart a Thousand Challenge) project, which, to date, has included three challenges in which all LATI employees have been invited to participate:
To reward the commitment of its employees, LATI donated 270 hours of water therapy for children with autism and severe disabilities at the Semi-residential Rehabilitation Center in Besozzo (VA). A unique social project, the first in a long series together for LATI and the Renato Piatti Foundation.
"Helping those who help enriches. It is with this spirit that LATI has been close to Fondazione Piatti for years now. With the "Cuore a mille challenge" project, we have declined many of LATI's values: well-being, participation and social sustainability. We also worked on a skill that we feel is increasingly necessary: embracing diversity, indeed uniqueness, by discovering people who made our hearts beat faster! The collaboration between LATI and the Fondazione Piatti (Piatti Foundation) is valuable and in the name of reciprocity.
Way forward!" declares Michela Conterno, CEO of LATI Industria Termoplastici S.p.A.
"Having made a common life experience that allows us to walk step by step together with the community of LATI and some of our beneficiaries makes our mission concrete, because disability is not a private issue of the families who live it, and LATI has been able to take up our invitation. Thanks to Michela Conterno's sensitivity, we have reached an important piece of territory by raising awareness on the issues of disability and autism," the words of Franco Radaelli, General Director of Fondazione Renato Piatti Onlus