Disability matters Europe conference & awards Barilla's hackability project is amongst the prize-winners
7 November 2018
The prize was presented in Switzerland on 6 November to Diversity&Inclusion Board member Giancarlo Minervini.
The Parma Group is a prime mover in promoting diversity and inclusion within the business, through highly innovative projects.
Such as [email protected], an exemplary case history in the world of technology applied to the needs of people with disabilities.
The Barilla Group (www.barillagroup.com) starred at the Disability Matters Europe Conference & Awards, held in Switzerland from 5 to 7 November 2018. The company was a prize-winner in the Steps-to-Success (Marketplace) category with the [email protected] project, reflecting the Parma Group's commitment and the quality of its projects in the area of diversity and inclusion.
[email protected]https://www.hackability.it/hackabilitybarilla/ is a hackathon, a competition between interdisciplinary teams, in which people with disabilities join forces with makers and designers to come up with cooking tools and new packagings which match the requirements of people with special needs. The project aims to evolve creative solutions for different types of disability, improving people's self-sufficiency. Barilla hosted the project's crucial phases at its Parma headquarters starting last winter, inviting its employees to take part and providing mentors with specific skills, with the aim of finding solutions suitable for people with disabilities, the elderly and those with special needs in general.
“[email protected] was a great opportunity for celebrating diversities and inclusion, very much in line with our company's commitment with regard to Diversity&Inclusion. In brief, the aims were to make our products, packs and brands more accessible to people with disabilities, encourage participation and awareness, and stimulate innovation through the inclusion of different talents and abilities. The partnership with Hackability gave us access to a co-design process in which solutions were designed not "for" but "with" the people who need them," explained Giancarlo Minervini, Vice President of Global Process Development Barilla and member of the Diversity&Inclusion Board, who received the Award.
It is important to underline that [email protected] springs from values and aims common to the two organizations, and forms part of the Parma Group's mission ‘Good for You, Good for the Planet’.
Inclusion and diversity are a long-established integral part of the company's culture, values and code of ethics, and a vital factor in its business model.
The Hackability method was originated in Turin in 2015. Today it is rated one of Italian's most successful co-design schemes, selected in June 2017 by the European Commission within the European Social Innovation Competition as one of the 30 projects capable of promoting the benefits of technological change in Europe. “The partnership with a major firm like Barilla," stated Hackability coordinator Carlo Boccazzi Varotto, "has led to co-design in a real context, enabling us to tackle the challenge of independence in the kitchen, and increase the potential for social and cultural impacts."
Website: www.barillagroup.com;
Twitter: @barillagroup
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