Engaging local communities

Snam, working extensively throughout Italy, seeks an open dialogue with local communities to consolidate mutual understanding and create lasting and profitable relationships. The relationships that are established over time are aimed at raising awareness of Snam’s work and making the local population aware of the Group’s activities and how it operates, in order to further extend the institutional relationships traditionally active with the Public Administration. In order to strengthen the relationship with and involvement of local communities, Fondazione Snam was established in 2017. Acting as a system integrator, it makes available the company’s corporate, methodological and managerial skills, as well as its ability to attract investment and develop relational networks in the local area. The Foundation pursues the development, promotion and dissemination of innovative, effective and supportive practices capable of fostering the civil, cultural and economic development of the country.

In past years, Snam has invited its employees to take part in Fondazione Snam initiatives, monitoring this through specific KPIs. This year, a commitment to do so was included in the ESG Scorecard, with a target to increase the percentage of employee hours spent on volunteering to support local communities by 10% each year by 2023. In 2020, there was unfortunately a slight decrease in the number of employee hours spent on voluntary activities, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic: despite the objective difficulties, Group employees still made their commitment felt and 1,200 of them were involved in such activities. In particular, during the year, given the impossibility of carrying out many volunteer activities in person, the Group’s efforts were directed towards finding online alternatives and the possibility of donating hours through payroll giving, which together made it possible to arrive at an overall total of 4,100 hours invested in volunteering.

In 2020, the collaboration between Snam and the Foundation was fundamental in combating the Covid-19 emergency: the two entities allocated Euro 21 million for initiatives in favour of the Italian health system and the Third Sector. These funds were directed to hospitals, health facilities and other entities for the purchase of medical devices and basic necessities, which saw the activation of the widespread network of contacts both locally and internationally to search for exporters of lung ventilators, machines to sanitise large public areas, monitors, masks and other protection.

In addition to activities aimed specifically at managing the pandemic, Fondazione Snam has continued its other projects on a regular basis, rethinking them in relation to the current health emergency.

Support for anti-violence

WE WORLD G.V.C. ONLUS

Geography: National

Project objectives:

• Strengthening the resilience and relationship management skills of women forced to stay at home due to the emergency

Beneficiari raggiunti: 500

Project description: Fondazione Snam contributed to the creation of a remote listening centre, run by operators specialised in dealing with cases of ill-treatment and critical intra-family relationships. The centre can be reached by phone, message and e-mail.

Support for the elderly and nursing homes (RSAs)

BERGAMO SANITÀ SOCIETÀ COOPERATIVA SOCIALE ONLUS

Geography: Bergamo – Lombardy

Project objectives:

• Ensuring the home care service to support elderly people
• Ensuring the safety of operators and their families

Beneficiaries reached: 2,000

Project description: Fondazione Snam contributed by guaranteeing home-based activities to support the elderly, to allow less exposure to the virus, protecting the health of patients and operators, and providing personal protective equipment, which was difficult to find during the first phase of the pandemic.

Income and psychological support

COMUNITÀ DI SANT’EGIDIO ACAP ONLUS

Geography: Apulia

Project objectives:

• Continuing to care for the chronically ill, not leaving them alone
• Promoting a decrease in hospital admissions through home-based care
• Providing personal protective equipment to health workers and ensuring its supply
  

Beneficiaries reached: 32 (thanks to the Snam contribution)

Project description: Fondazione Snam covered the costs for the inclusion of 4 additional operators. Close contact was maintained with patients and caregivers, facilitating the delivery of medicines and medical examinations at home. In addition, individual protective equipment was procured and purchased and patients were assisted both medically and emotionally.

Education and psychological and social support

ASSOCIAZIONE SOS VILLAGGI DEI BAMBINI ONLUS

Geography: Trento, Vicenza, Saranno (VA), Mantova, Roma, Ostuni

Project objectives:

• Safeguarding the health and psychophysical well-being of children and young people in Villaggi SOS
• Ensuring the continuity and enhancement of the reception services offered
• Safeguarding the health of workers in Villaggi SOS
  

Beneficiaries reached: 730

Project description: Fondazione Snam supported, through a donation, the cost of the extra working hours of the educators and operators. In addition, sanitary and hygienic material was purchased, such as masks, gloves, gels and other products for disinfection.

Access to care, health and psychological support

FONDAZIONE ANT ITALIA ONLUS

Geography: Apulia

Project objectives:

• Continuing to care for the chronically ill, not leaving them alone
• Promoting a decrease in hospital admissions through home-based care
• Providing personal protective equipment to health workers and ensuring its supply

Beneficiaries reached: 32 (thanks to the Snam contribution)

Project description: Fondazione Snam covered the costs for the inclusion of 4 additional operators. Close contact was maintained with patients and caregivers, facilitating the delivery of medicines and medical examinations at home. In addition, individual protective equipment was procured and purchased and patients were assisted both medically and emotionally.

Parenting support, health and psychological support and health protection

FONDAZIONE PAIDEIA ONLUS

Geography: Turin – Piedmont

Project objectives:

• Ensuring targeted support for families with children with disabilities from a psycho-educational, welfare and social-assistance perspective, as well as from a rehabilitation and therapeutic perspective;
• Providing families with the most serious difficulties with the technological tools they need to access the Internet and continue their children’s education and therapy.
• Ensuring the safety of staff in activities
  

Beneficiaries reached: 1,230

Project description: Fondazione Snam contributed to ensuring the continuity of offering concrete support to families with children with disabilities, focusing on reducing the risk of isolation, exclusion and socio-economic impoverishment.

Treasures, Solidarity Lands in Inclusive Networks

The initiative, launched in 2017 in collaboration with Confagricoltura, has made unused land owned by Snam available to local communities. Environmental and agricultural projects involved the most vulnerable social groups.

Between 2019 and 2020, projects were supported in 2 areas. In Recanati (MC), a small pasta factory has been set up to provide vocational training for young people with disabilities and educational workshops, and has also started production. The second project concerned Ronco all’Adige (VR), where the construction of facilities to host pet-therapy activities and hydroponic cultivation was completed. In addition, rehabilitation programmes for people with mental difficulties were initiated.

Sprint! La scuola con una marcia in più

The Sprint! project aims to implement an experimental model to combat educational poverty among minors and prevent forms of juvenile distress by removing the economic, social and cultural obstacles that prevent the full use of educational processes. In 2020, the project, in co-financing with Impresa Sociale con i Bambini, implemented educational and recreational activities for children and parents both in person and at a distance in Palermo, Brindisi and Milan. In addition, 3 summer camps focused on the theme of environmental education were held during the summer. Overall, the project involved more than 700 children, 100 parents and 50 teachers and educational workers.

Corvetto Adottami

The initiative aims to contribute to the redevelopment and social development of the Milan Corvetto neighbourhood and focuses on three areas of intervention: social innovation, combating educational poverty and improving the environment and energy efficiency. Corvetto Adottami consolidates a series of initiatives already present in the area, such as “LacittàIntorno” and “QuiBì” in synergy with Fondazione Cariplo, the Municipality of Milan and the network of local associations.

During 2020, workshops for social inclusion were carried out in the Istituto Comprensivo Candia and guidance and support activities for young people not in training or employment and young people at high risk of dropping out of school (aged 14-17) were launched. In addition, the social enterprise MadeinCorvetto was inaugurated to offer citizens activities related to the world of food, culture and cycling in the covered market in Piazza Ferrara. Finally, in October 2020, the first section of the ‘Tappeto Volante’ urban regeneration project was inaugurated, involving the 500-metre route linking the Tommaso Grossi institute and Emilio Alessandrini park.

Initiatives against energy poverty

In 2020, the Foundation committed to tackling energy poverty by launching a series of projects that will see their first concrete results in 2021: on the one hand, a research study will be published that aims to define, measure and describe the phenomenon of energy poverty and the main actions to combat it; on the other hand, a call for projects will be launched to support the development of project activities aimed at combating energy poverty.

ForestaMI

Fondazione Snam is supporting the Milan City Council’s “ForestaMi” project aimed at planting 3 million trees by 2030.
It is a project aimed at increasing the resilience of the entire Milan area to environmental stresses and the effects of global warming, improving the quality of the environment and of life. In particular, Fondazione Snam has identified the first strategic forestation project, Serravalle, whose design will be managed by Arbolia and will be fully financed by the Foundation and TEP Energy Solutions.

Welfare, che Impresa!

The project consists of a competition promoted by Fondazione Italiana Accenture, Fondazione Snam, Fondazione Bracco, Fondazione Con il Sud and Ubi Banca. 250 ideas were submitted, from which 12 finalists were selected to participate in an online training workshop.

The first prize was awarded to ZeroPerCento, a young social cooperative made up of five women that creates employment opportunities for young people with disabilities. ZeroPerCentro was able to take advantage of the mentorship programme launched by Fondazione Snam, which also supported the cooperative in its development path thanks to its volunteer expertise.

Employee Engagement and Volunteer Day

In 2020, despite the fact that the pandemic forced many activities to be carried out remotely, the following initiatives were successfully implemented:

• Online Competence Volunteering: a programme under which 30 Snam employees provided their expertise by donating 100 hours of salary and contributing to the “Corvetto Adottami” and “Welfare che Impresa” projects.
• Provision of vehicles for the distribution of basic necessities: thanks to the 11 methane-powered company cars granted by Snam on a temporary free loan basis, associations such as Emergency, the Italian Red Cross and Action Aid, in collaboration with Prodos, expanded and optimised their home assistance service to fragile families in Milan and Naples, delivering them packages of food and basic necessities.
• Provision of licences for access to the Snam Institute training platform: 30 Snam Institute E-Learning licences have been donated to non-profit organisations to increase their skills by drawing on the professional development courses in the training catalogue.
• Payroll giving and Matchgiving campaigns in favour of Third Sector organisations: campaigns through which Snam employees donated approximately 4,000 hours of pay to associations and organisations proposed by the Foundation.

For more information, see the Fondazione Snam’s report.