(Finance) – On the occasion of the International Day of People with Disabilities Intesa Sanpaolo launches new initiatives and intensifies the many already underway. Eighty disability managers who work every day to make it easier for colleagues, full accessibility of ATMs, branches and websites, specific initiatives in the Bank’s museums and support for many associations and initiatives: the commitment of Intesa Sanpaolo is recognized with the Group’s inclusion in the main international rankings relating to diversity, such as the FTSE Diversity and Inclusion Index – Top 100 and it’s there first bank in the world among the 100 most inclusive and diversity-focused workplaces.
For the Day the focus is raise awareness of all the people who work in the Bank towards the culture of inclusion and the importance of the theme. Attention to people, to their well-being, to the specificities of each one is one of the aspects that characterizes Intesa Sanpaolo. Sport, art and cinema are at the center of initiatives for promote awareness and inclusion between colleagues with initiatives that lead people without disabilities to identify with the situation of people with disabilities. The same common thread also characterizes the initiatives of Gallerie d’Italia della Bancawith routes in the museums of Milan and Naples to experience another way of “seeing” and learning about works of art by relying on the senses of hearing, touch and smell or the accessibility route for blind people in museums of Turin and Vicenza. Added to this are initiatives such as those launched by the Turin Savings Museum in collaboration with various associations, including the Italian Blind Union and the National Deaf Association to promote accessibility, including translation into LIS – Italian Sign Language of multimedia devices.
For the Group’s staff, the Mutual Aid Society dedicated to all employees and their family members, including cohabitants, with the precise aim of offering concrete help in case of need, as for the theme of “After Us”, while the Intesa Sanpaolo Ente Filantropico Foundation awards scholarships to master’s thesis on the topic of disability. The Charity Fund headed by the Presidency of the Bank has supported numerous people over the years projects in favor of people with disabilities and has included attention to the rights of people with disabilities in the 2023-2024 Guidelines within the broader focus on the fight against violence against discrimination.
Even the structure “Intesa Sanpaolo for Social Affairs” supports numerous initiatives and has launched social co-planning actions with Third Sector bodies to support people with disabilities. Among the main interventions: the partnership with Dynamo Camp, active since 2019, with the aim of strengthening the of welcoming children and young people with disabilities and serious pathologies and their families at the Camp and the Disability-Friendly Community Project (CAD) launched in 2021 by the three Brescia non-profit organizations (Foundation ASM, Villa Paradiso Foundation and Congrega della Carità Apostolica di Brescia) together with the scientific society SIDIN (Italian Society for Neurodevelopmental Disorders) to define the characteristics that make an area welcoming to people with disabilities and to encourage the growth of Inclusive communities. In the field of education and employability, the Bank promotes and implements programs and projects to support inclusive education, orientation and scholastic inclusion of young people with physical and intellectual disabilities in order to create social networks and alliances structural with important Third Sector players.
The Bank also promotes projects professional orientation and training for young people with physical and intellectual disabilities in order to encourage the acquisition of skills useful for making one’s way in the world of work. Intesa Sanpaolo’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is thus expressed both with internal policies aimed at its people and with external projects and participation in numerous local initiatives.