The event brought together more than 200 customers and suppliers to recognise and thank the trust and commitment of those companies that collaborate with the organisation to promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities, mental illness or vulnerable situations, as well as to bring the work of this organisation with nearly sixty years of experience closer to the business network of the region.
Since 1999, the conference aims to be a meeting point for companies that promote synergies, ideas and relationships that favour a new style of doing business based on values and social responsibility. The mission of AMPANS is to work to generate opportunities for employment and social inclusion for people with disabilities and in situations of vulnerability.
As stated in her opening speech Silvia Gratacós, vice-president of the AMPANS Foundation “to achieve our objectives we work with criteria of excellence and offering quality products and services. Explaining this to society, in events like today’s, which brings together so many companies, helps us to give visibility to our cause” AMPANS: many people and many professionals with life projects and objectives that we help to achieve“. In this sense, Toni Espinal, general director of the AMPANS Foundation, added that “Everything we do responds to the needs of people with disabilities and at risk of exclusion, which increase year after year. Currently, we accompany nearly 4,000 people“.
This year’s round table focused on “Companies with commitment. Successful experiences in Corporate Social Responsibility”, with the participation of the experts Josep Mª Canyelles, coordinator of Respon.cat, Albert Giralt, general director of Grupo Avinent, Maite Laporta, head of the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of FC Barcelona and Josep Santacreu, president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, and also president of Plant-for-the-Planet Spain and the DKV Integralia Foundation. The round table highlighted the need for companies to take a step forward in favour of a real commitment, which is social, environmental and economic.
Afterwards, recognition was given to the companies BioSystems, Maxion Wheels and THOR Especialidades for their commitment to the social and labour inclusion of people with diverse abilities, in close collaboration with the AMPANS Foundation. Workers from the Special Work Centre of the AMPANS foundation, who work for these companies, participated in the awards ceremony, giving their first-person testimony.
BioSystems is a “biotech” analytical solutions company for laboratories. Founded in Barcelona, it is based in 18 countries and has a commercial presence in more than 120. Its commitment to AMPANS became a reality in February 2022, with the commissioning of Industry Services for the assembly of structures, electronic boards, purchasing management and quality control of components. “A job that allows us to demonstrate that we are capable of providing a highly qualified and reliable response from high-tech companies,” says AMPANS.
The automotive sector company, Maxion Wheels, set up a work enclave in 2019 that employs 8 AMPANS employees. It consists of two teams that travel to the Maxion Wheels plant, which for practical purposes are integrated into the company’s own workforce and cover two shifts, morning and afternoon. They are in charge of sorting interlayers, pallets and lids, wheel refinishing (shot blasting and polishing), disc packing, checking and destruction of wheels. The enclave is a very powerful labour figure for the labour inclusion of people with disabilities, provided for in the General Law on Disability, and which facilitates access to work in normalised environments.
Thor Especialidades is a chemical company dedicated to the manufacture and marketing of chemical components for cosmetics and biocides. Involvement in the social fabric is one of the aims of this company, which has been linked to AMPANS since 2012, with financial donations earmarked for the organisation’s social projects. In 2018, it took its teams to participate in corporate volunteering in the organisation’s centres and services, and to share a day of experiences with the social organisation. From that moment on, a continuous and increasingly close link was established to repeat social awareness days among its teams. In 2021, it went a step further by contracting the labour services of the Special Work Centre, in a key point for the company, the laundry service, which is responsible for the sanitisation, bagging and distribution of work uniform clothing. This year, they collaborated jointly by commissioning the AMPANS foundation to illustrate the corporate values, in a dissemination campaign that has permeated the entire company.
Finally, the closing of the event was supported by Òscar Riu, Director General of Labour Relations, Self-Employment, Occupational Safety and Health of the Department of Enterprise and Labour of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and Marc Aloy, Mayor of Manresa, who highlighted the work and visibility work carried out by this organisation.