A Catalyst For Change

Social Innovation Fund is a catalyst for change within the Encouraging Future Generations Program; a great tool for Allianz entities to generate long term partnerships and further develop their CR strategy beyond charitable donations. Main aim of the fund is to enable best-practice-exchange and creation of local lighthouse projects in social inclusion.

Even though selection criteria for winners ranged from innovation scale to incorporation of employee engagement aspects; common denominator for all was the Group focus on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 8  target: increasing number of children and youth in education, training and employability by 2020.

From 4 continents in total of 9 projects were selected as leading examples of this target, making them eligable for funding. Among the winners were Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Madagascar, Poland and Portugal.

This year´s selection committee was formed by Allianz Corporate Citizenship Team, Impact Hub and SOS Children´s Villages.

 

Allianz Brazil with this program aims at deploying ABA´s  (Associação Beneficente dos Funcionários do Grupo Allianz ) digital center for children and adolescents, which is already in existence in Santa Rita . The center aims at fostering creativity, logical thinking, context interpretation, decision making, systematic view, and team work by means of learning computer program logics.

The idea is to make this program accessible to kids and teens from Santa Rita community (low income households in Sao Paulo). The target audience is 5 and above and also adolescents.

The program intends at teaching program logics to kids via recreational methods, where children can learn while they play with dynamic softwares.

Allianz Ghana aims to address several societal issues under one project. Main focus of the project tackles an environmental and social challenge hand in hand. By addressing a problematic plastic issue at the beaches of Ghana with recycling; project aims to generate cash and create value for the community. 

Bins will be stationed on the beaches of Ghana to recycle plastic which then will be send to create a sustainable revenue system for a school nearby. The school is designated as the pilot of both physical uplift and also educational contribution of what can be achieved with the project. At first, recycled plastic will be upcycled into pavement blocks to build an outdoor space for kids to play and learn at the school yard.  The project will then together with employees, facelift the school i.e. painting, tree planting, etc. with pupils. Later Allianz Ghana will design and build the school an environmentally friendly creative centre using recycled and re-purposed materials. The purpose is to  further create an awarenss and knowhow among pupils such as building a garden where they can grow vegetables and other crops and learn about composting.

Allianz Life Indonesia is building an Organic Aquaculture to promote youth employability. The project will be located in Greol, Mojokerto, one of the poorest villages in East Java. The program aims at introducing organic aquaculture using bio flock to the disadvantaged youth in the village in order to develop skills and create job opportunities.

The program will provide youth with necessary support to become a social entrepreneur. They will  be provided with intensive theory and on the job trainings on how to manage bio flock aquaculture system. Additionally they will be supported by several vocal trainings in order for them to carry out their business such as financial literacy and digital marketing trainings.

The target group includes youth ranging from the age of 15 to 25 and initially start with 25 young people in 2019.

Earned profits will be shared with local community in developing a new biofloc aquaculture for other youth, as well as establishing formal school and library in the neighborhood. Further plans include setting up a digital platform to create an online marketplace to boost the sales.

The Italian labour market has become more challenging and less inclusive for all jobseekers. To help tackle this problem, since 2012 Learning from Excellence gives excluded young people the opportunity to overcome their disadvantages, while acquiring, after-formal, also non-formal learning and skills for the labor market.

The project aims to fill the gap between skills acquired by young people during their catering school education and those actually required by the hotel industry. Hence, the project provides a learning on-the job internship at top rated hotels and restaurants and promotes skill acquisition.  70% of the trainees have found a job at the end of the internship.

In 2018 project has 7 partners, 28 NPOs, 29 hotels/restaurants and 70 trainees.

Gorilla is an international health promotion & education programme for young people between the ages of 9 and 25. It stands for fun in movement and positive attitude towards life.

The program is positioned at children, young people and adults with or without disabilities or despite of their social backgrounds. The aim is to raise awareness for more exercise through freestyle sports, balanced nutrition and sustainable consumption.

Program is already active in Principality of Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and have more than 100 international ambassadors. Goal is to teach the children, young people and young adults in a youthful way vital skills to take responsibility for themselves and the planet. Gorilla annually welcomes around 134,000 children, young people throughout the DACH region. Since the establishment of the Swiss Foundation in 2003, workshops at schools have already reached over 70,000 students.

Allianz Germany partners with Gorilla to extend the program in the country. 

Argentina has the highest unemployment rate especially among young people under the age of 25. The reasons for this are many, but one of the major reasons identified by the employers and young people is the gap between an individual’s job skills and that demanded by the job market. The challenges to enter the labour market are especially high for young people who have already lost parental care. Many times they lack a strong support network and positive role models, as well as quality education, skills training, networks and work experiences. Therefore the aim of this project is to contribute to the economic inclusion of young people who have lost family care. In order to accomplish this we will implement the YouthCan! Framework, an initiative that brings together companies and NGOs to share their expertise, networks and experience to create new avenues and opportunities for young people. Within this frame, programmes are designed on local level together with the partners. Our main focus areas are: soft & technical skills training, job orientation and 1st work experience.

The transition to the world of work remains a challenge especially for the young people. In 2017, 4 million people have been registered unemployed in Madagascar and 70% of them were youth. Young people especially the ones from the disadvantaged background lack enough education, skills and work readiness. The project between Allianz and SOS Children´s Villages Madagascar aims to develop a solid foundation to smooth the transition from education to employment by providing meaningful work experience for the best interest of all. Allianz Madagascar will provide an employment service (job counseling, job search assistance or mentoring) to young people which will be complemented by job placement.  The project aims at accompanying 30 young people from alternative care & family strengthening  program of SOS over a course of three years.  Allianz staff will accompany ten students per year, who will graduate from university or attend a vocational training within the same year through their integration process.  

The project is implemented in the poorest province of Lubelskie, which has the lowest GDP. Due to its difficult socio-economic situation many families are in need of a complex assistance. Hence, the project aims at equalizing health and educational differences among disadvantaged children and young people from the Family Strengthening Program in Lublin to prepare them for a future where they can focus on having fulfilling jobs. 

The project aims at targeting young people who are either finishing their academic education and preparing to enter in the professional lives, or the ones who have had a professional experience as an intern or employee but still and are independent and live in the ‘autonomy apartments’ of Aldeias de Criancas SOS Children´s Villages.  Allianz Portugal designed the program to help these young people through different activities like recruitment workshops, job shadowing opportunities, financial literacy sessions, English courses and by providing these young people with driving licenses to make them more independent.