Finding themselves in prison to rediscover themselves as a team. Learning to collaborate from those forced into absolute sharing. Doing team building with inmates. After all, who better than them, sometimes confined to 4-square-meter cells with turns for the bathroom or to put their feet on the ground from bunk beds, can concretely demonstrate the value of mutual support? Welcome to the correctional facility of Alessandria, where companies can bring their employees to learn coexistence, collaboration, and restarting. Through a new experience of closeness, listening. But also of play. And getting hands-on.
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Team building in the pastry shop
The space dedicated to team building events is developed between the new pastry laboratory, Fuga di Sapori Bakery 2.0, and the penitentiary’s bistro, originally a Franciscan convent. It will be inaugurated in the coming days by Iren luce gas e servizi, part of the Iren group, with ten employees. «But even before the inauguration, we are already gathering interest from various types of entities», says Carmine Falanga, president of the Idee in fuga cooperative, who has been committed for years to «creating synergy between the prison walls and businesses», wrote the Quirinale last year in the motivations for the honor of Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic.
Between prison and businesses
From carpentry to the hop field, for beer production within the other penitentiary, to the pastry shop, the bistro, and catering service: «Good food, reduced cost – Falanga smiles – and above all, a social impact». Like the one that led Iren to book the 350 sq m laboratory for its next corporate event.
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Instead of a luxurious spa, a disconnected hermitage, or who knows what small island, colleagues will find themselves together – according to each company’s instructions – among mixers, planetary mixers, and ovens. Guided by an expert trainer, they will face games and challenges – like on Masterchef – in search of ingredients, in preparing doughs, and then all end up together around the bistro tables, an integral part of the penitentiary but open to the city, to taste the prepared dishes.
Learning from mistakes
The kitchen thus becomes a metaphor for challenges and small great lessons to learn. The waiting time, the division of tasks, the enhancement of individual aptitudes, listening. And then the ability to get back up after a fall. One (or more) days of team building, with young people who have understood their mistakes and are trying to seize a new opportunity in life, aims to be for businesses «a concrete sign in support of an activity capable of combining training, collaboration, and social responsibility», explains Iren.
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