(Finance) – Strengthening and improving the reception capacity of the Community of San Patrignano to face the hidden emergency of addictions: this is the challenge launched today by Intesa Sanpaolo and from San Patrignano Foundation within the meeting “Links for the future: together to restore a future” which took place in the same community, on the day following the World Day against Addiction. To underline the addiction emergency in Italy, the data of European Drug Report, those of the Report to Parliament on Drug Addiction and of‘San Patrignano Observatory, which were presented during the meeting and highlighted that: Italy is the third European country for the use of opiates and the fourth for the use of psychoactive substances; the average age of consumers has drastically decreased; in 2021, 621,000 students aged 15-19 reported having used a substance.
During the meeting, which saw the participation of experts from the world of business, healthcare, education and social reintegration, the common path that the Intesa Sanpaolo Group has undertaken with the Community since 2020 was recalled thanks to the project “Support and prevent: together to give back a future”bringing to public attention the theme of pathological addiction, in all its forms, and of prevention as the first tool to combat this social problem that has not yet been overcome in the country.
In the first three-year period of the partnership, recently renewed until 2025, the initiative has made it possible to welcome around 3 thousand young people and to support the social reintegration of about 800 people, at the end of their rehabilitation process in the Community, with the offer of training courses and certified training internships.
It emerged that San Patrignano is a community of life, a home and a family in which those who have fallen into the trap of addiction can take control of their lives, restore meaning and finally discover the value of independence. In more than 40 years, they have gone further in the Community 26 thousand young people and 72% of these reintegrated successfully. There are almost 20,000 people who live, work and have built a family today: the population of a new city that would not have existed without the commitment of San Patrignano and its supporters.
The event was also an opportunity to launch the “Another brick for SanPa” fundraising campaignactive on For Funding, Intesa Sanpaolo’s free crowdfunding platform, to support the construction of 300 new homes in the Community.
“Counter the spread of drugs in minors and support the recovery and rehabilitation model offered by the Community of San Patrignano, an excellence in the country and in Europe: these are – he declared Elisa Zambito Marsala, Head of Social Development and University Relations Intesa Sanpaolo – the main objectives of the project “Support and prevention: together to give back a future” which since 2020 has seen us working alongside the San Patrignano Foundation. A commitment that we intend to pursue with conviction and that we have remembered in this event full of significance”.
“The desire for rebirth – he commented Letizia Moratti, co-founder of the San Patrignano Foundation – is the characterizing trait of those who arrive in San Patrignano. This is why the fundraising project for 300 new beds means giving light to the days of many people, young and old, it means rekindling hope to promote their redemption in our society. It’s not an easy path, but San Patrignano is par excellence the home of hospitality and inclusion, where everyone is someone and no one is last or invisible. We face this umpteenth challenge through a friendship, the one with Intesa Sanpaolo, which is renewed and consolidated even more through this project: going it alone and winning is almost impossible, playing as a team is not only possible, but it is also more beautiful and rewarding”.