Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore

Cooperativa Alice

Cooperative Alice was born in 1992 in Milan with the aim of promoting the social and occupational reintegration of disadvantaged people – in particular women in prison or victims of violence and mothers in difficulty – within a production system mainly dedicated to four activities: tailoring, forensic tailoring, leather goods and accessories and school clothing, made in the prisons of Bollate and Monza and in two external laboratories (in Milan and Brescia). Through an activity model based on the values ​​of social sustainability, the mission of the Cooperative is aimed at building an inclusive society that places the person at the center of the community. Cooperativa Alice, in fact, aims to restore dignity to fragile subjects through their employment within ethical craft supply chains: for example, to reduce the recidivism rate, it totally re-invests the profits of its work in training and inclusion courses.

Alice is now supported by Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore (or “FSVGDA”), which has invested €120,000 in equity in the Cooperative. The investment was finalized with the use of the “Impact Grant”, an innovative financial instrument that allows for part of the equity investment to be transformed into a grant, in the hypothesis of the achievement of pre-established social impact objectives – agreed. The investment was made as part of “Impact4Coop”, the program to support the recovery of the cooperative sector, launched at the beginning of 2022 by Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore in synergy with Fondazione Cariplo.

Impact

In order to offer concrete and immediate solutions to the aforementioned problems in the fashion sector, Alice signed a memorandum of understanding with “Feat” in March 2022 for the creation of the first Made in Italy Fair Trade district under the “Ethicarei” brand. The initiative will allow to combine the experience and reputation of Alice and the know-how of Feat in sustainable development management. Thanks to the collaboration of Feat Impresa Sociale, author of the project, the district will carry out training and education actions both for fashion brands – to which it will propose sustainability paths focused on processes from ethical supply chains – and for the social cooperatives themselves to increase their skills and production efficiency. Through the use of leftovers of poor and recycled materials and the upcycling of highly polluting ones, Alice promotes a conscious use of resources, contributing to the reduction of waste and pollution generated by production. The work placement courses are carried out in close collaboration with the management of the penitentiary institutes, which deal with the selection of the subjects to whom Alice offers a six-month training course, remunerated with work grants, during which it is possible to learn the basic techniques of tailoring and/or leather goods. At the end of this period, the people deemed suitable are regularly employed by the cooperative and introduced into the internal or external production system of the prisons. To date, Alice has enabled over 450 marginalized women to achieve economic independence, giving them a new chance for a future.

Foundation year
1992
Legal status
Social Cooperative
Site
Milan
Sector
Job inclusion
In portfolio since
2023
Type of investment
Equity
Website: www.cooperativalice.it