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4 Projects Selected By The “Costa Crociere Foundation” Are Underway To Support Social Solidarity And Marine Environmental Protection Initiatives

A total of about Euro600,000 has been earmarked for the start-up of four initiatives aimed atimproving training and job opportunities for needy young people and at raisingawareness to reduce marine waste. The projects being carried out in the Italianregions of Liguria, Lazio and Tuscany involve the efforts of more than 1,500young people. <?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

Genoa, 7 October 2015 – The initial activities involving the first fourprojects financed by the Costa Crociere Foundation that focus on socialsolidarity and marine environmental protection initiatives have now gottenunderway. Approximately Euro 600,000 has been allocated to the non-profitorganizations whose projects were selected by the Foundation to developactivities to raise awareness about marine waste and training programs for morethan 1,500 needy young people.

During the projectsubmittal period, from 16 January to 15 February 2015, the Costa CrociereFoundation received more than 100 proposals, four of which were selected by theAdvisory Boards and by the Foundation’s Board of Directors. These projects,three involving social issues and one in the field of environmental protection,will run from two to three years and will be implemented in the regions ofLiguria, Lazio and Tuscany.

The selectedsocial-theme projects involve non-profit associations working in the regions ofLazio and Liguria. In particular:

· ‘MaTeChef’: this project, presented by the CIES of Roma, isaimed at 60 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 and involves 2-yeartraining courses in the culinary sector. Forty of these participants aremigrants and refugees from the Centro di Aggregazione Giovanile “MaTeMù”. Theinitiative will lead to the creation of a “Social bistro”, whose objective isto improve the job opportunities of young people from the more disadvantagedsegments of the population.

· ‘Today, Tomorrow, to Nino’: proposed by the Focus-Casa deiDiritti Sociali Association, the project has been developed for 300disadvantaged children and young people aged 6 to 20 who live in themetropolitan area of Rome. An individual study support program will be createdfor each one and 30 particularly needy and deserving students will receive asmall economic contribution to cover some costs, such as for books and transportation.

· ‘Collavoriamo’: presented by the “Il Laboratorio”Cooperative in Genoa, the project tackles the issue of NEET (Not engaged inEducation, Employment or Training) involving young people who have given up onreceiving education and seeking gainful employment. Through training coursescombined with 2-year intern/apprenticeships, the cooperative is working tosupport 24 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who left the educationalsystem early on and are part of the more disadvantaged segment of thepopulation.


In the environmentalsector, the Costa Crociere Foundation is working to support the activitiespromoted by the Rome-based CIRSPE. The “Awareness-raisingproject to reduce marine waste in the central-northern Tyrrhenian Sea” willbe carried out over 3 years in the regions of Lazio, Tuscany and Liguria. Theaim of the project is to develop a strategy to reduce pollution from marinewaste through the involvement of students, institutions, associations andeconomic operators. The initiative implements two specific operativeguidelines: environment-focused education in schools, involving 1,200middle-school students, and the organization of theme-based informativemeetings aimed at different players in the marine sector to promote sustainablemanagement of the waste polluting coastlines and the sea.

The Costa CrociereFoundation is an independently-run organization, inaugurated in October 2014,whose goal is to improve the social and environmental conditions in thecommunities of Italy, where Costa Crociere was founded and is headquartered. Inparticular, the Foundation is constantly engaged, through cooperation withorganizations and individuals striving to achieve the same objectives, insocial initiatives that provide education and humanitarian assistance todisadvantaged persons and in activities that focus on reducing and preventingwaste and debris in the Mediterranean Sea (# style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;'>/).

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