Prize Winners II Edition

 

Individuals

 

	Egidio Guerra de Freitas, Fortaleza Brasil.
			Egidio studied at the University of Ceará (UECE): In his first semester, back in 1992, with fellow students, he founded the organisation Junior Enterprises. Today there are more than 400 such organisations throughout Brasil which supply consulting work to small and medium-size firms.

 

He began work as head of Public Relations for the Ceará division of Coca-Cola and went into politics, joining the Social Democratic Party, being elected coordinator general for the party's youth wing. His first experience of politics left him disillusioned. He realised that the political parties did not allow young people to initiate real policies, but merely used them for banner-waving.

The student movement also disappointed him, given its inablity to achieve real improvement  to ingrained social problems. So he gave up his student and political commitments to read, reflect and develop his own solutions, at the same time continuing with his career as a marketing and communications executive in companies like Bank Real, DuPont Brazil and Brahma.

This period of reflection served him well when it came to setting up his own project. He founded the Global Executive Society, the objective of which was to educate executives in corporate and social responsibility. His experiences in setting up the Global Executive Society formed the basis for his vision of a transformation in the social and economic prospects of young people in his country.

As a result of Egidio's efforts, young people in north-east Brazil have come to see the option of creating their own business as one with great competitive advantages in the face of the unemployment, poverty and violence which they must confront.
 
Egidio has created channels for young people to enter the labour market and set up their own firms organized in economically competitive groupings. Both groupings and the firms themselves are shaped and run by the young people themselves.

He has turned the most disadvantaged young people and university students into active protagonists solving the problem that faces both collectives: the difficulty of obtaining first employment with job security. His aim has been to transform organisations in civil society working with disadvantaged young people into professional training schools and incubators of small businesses.

The result has been the creation of work and income for marginalised young people, who otherwise would have been the first target and victims of violence, crime, prostitution and drugs. With higher income and a first-hand understanding of the social problems that young people face, these new entrepreneurs and employees hae become socially responsible consumers and active citizens. Their new positive, productive role in society, has served to revitalise the economy, reduce inequality of incomes and create solutions contributing to  social change.
Currently, he is an advisor in the Governor's Office where he runs the Social Synergy Program, is Co-Director of Goods and FINS, Coordinator of the SESI Agents for Social Responsibility Program, Consultant for International Organisations and NGOs, and coordinator general of Wisdom Earth, the first Social Innovation park in the world.

 

 

Firms

 

	Lezama Group
			was founded in 1974 in Madrid, on the initiative of Luis Lezama, as a tool for training young people and integrating them into the labour market and hence society. It benefited from the advice of a group of cooks: Genaro Pildain, Juan Mari Arzak and Patxi Bereicua, who was the first chef in the Taberna de Madrid.

The group's development since then has taken in diverse sectors of the popular and select restaurant business, in terms of establishment and associated social developments. The Group was born of the need to create jobs for a new generation of youth with problems in a country in the throes of rapid social transformation. The Group has never lost this commitment to social change, which is based on its core philosophy: don't throw people tiddlers, but teach them how to fish.

The group has a strongly participatory character at managerial level  and favours direct, co-operative action. Permanent training lends dynamism, which generates new and advanced restaurant projects, restaurants which have gone on to achieve a notable profile in the sector.

The Lezama Group  has set up the following restaurants and cafes: Taberna del Alabardero – Madrid; Café de Oriente – Madrid; Botillería del Café de Oriente – Madrid;
Catering del Café de Oriente – Madrid; Restaurante Taberna del Alabardero – Sevilla; Hotel Taberna del Alabardero – Sevilla; Taberna del Alabardero Club de Playa, San Pedro de Alcántara – Marbella; Taberna del Alabardero Benahavis – Marbella; Taberna del Alabardero Hotel & Resort – Marbella; Caserío Iruaritz; Lezama, Alabardero Tavern – Washington; Alarbadero Tavern – Seattle
As time has elapsed, the Lezama Group has branched out into different companies each offering a broad range of services in various different fields. These companies, some private and some public, are set up by the most senior workers and run by managers chosen from among them. Together the managers and the Group founder, Luis Lezama, make up an advisory and voting Council which has ultimate control over decisions of group governance. The Council is also where plans are made for developing existing centres of work and setting up new projects.
The Group is of the opinion that a firm should be a training workshop and not merely a market-reponsive place of work. Work itself should be a place where continuous and therefore thoroughgoing training is acquired. Moreover, the group's experience has convinced it that where there is no training, there is no motivation and where there is no motivation, there is no success.
The Lezama group has three hostelry schools (Marbella, Sevilla y Zaragoza). The latter is a centre for more advanced studies. At the moment the group is planning to open new schools in Madrid, Costa Rica and Algiers.
Luis de Lezama was born in Amurrio (Alava) on the 15th June 1936. He studied at the Jesuits' Indauchu College in Bilbao, then entered training to become a priest at the Conciliar Seminary in Madrid, where he qualified in Theology and was ordained in 1962.
He began his pastoral and social work in Chinchón, giving special attention to marginalised young people to whom he offered welcome, training and work. He was transferred to Vallecas, Entrevías, in 1965, where he lived amongst marginalised young people and created the first "Youth Hostel". Here he initiated the process of social reinsertion through community work. His philosphy was always, "don't throw them tiddlers, teach them how to fish".
In 1974, he set up a bar restaurant in the center of Madrid: La TABERNA DEL ALABARDERO, as a means towards independent living for himself and his young people. In recent years, this bar-restaurant has been frequented by personalities from contemporary restless society,  intellectuals, políticians, businessmen, journalists, writers, actors and musicians, especially musicians, sicne the Taberna is opposite the Teatro Real in Madrid.
He has been awarded the French Civil Order of Merit (1989) and the Gold Medal for Tourism, Spain (1996). He is Vice-president of the Spaish Association of Hostelry Schools (AEHOS) and of the European organisation (EURHODIP).
Since 2006, he has been the parish priest in Santa María la Blanca in Fuencarral (Madrid), in a recently urbanized zone, in which he has initiated the construction of the parish centre, following on from the opening of a teaching centre, attached to the parish.

 

 

Institutions/Public bodies/NGOs

 

	Tomillo Foundation
			The Tomillo Foundation, set up in 1984, is an independent, not-for-profit, private organisation, of no particular faith, whose general objective is to be of service to society, but in particular to offer solidarity to the most disadvantaged collectives: ie minors protected by law, minors and adolescents at risk of being excluded from school, the unemployed with severe work difficulties, women alienated from the work market; handicapped people, old people and those dependent on others.

 The Foundation began offering support to entrepreneurial initiatives and direct work creation in disadvantaged districts in Madrid. From the start, there was an emphasis on entrepreneurship and sustainability in years when unemployment stood at more than 20%.

The drive of the Founders and the people who make up Tomillo has led the Foundation, always from a standpoint of sharing and close observation, into many different fields in response to social, educational and labour needs. Its definitive mission is to promote initiatives that contribute to social and human development, with a particular attention to the most disadvantaged rungs of society.
Currently, its initiatives are focussed in the following fields: prevention of school failure; work training, guidance and arbitration; direct work creation for social ends; activities of community development; training activities for individual development and social and economic research.
As far as work insertion for young people goes, the followng projects stand out:  Specialized training, in collaboration with Microsoft and the Alfonso Martín Escudero Foundation; work practice in France aimed at youngsters taking part in PCPI (First level programs of professional training). This is an innovative project, since it's the first time that young people with a profile of school failure, some of whom come from destructive families and a background of marginalisation, have had the opportunity of work experience abroad; young people, self-employment and prison in collaboration with the Institute of Youth, the Directoate of Penitential Insititutions and the company "Initiatives". The aim of this project is to give third-grade prisoners between the ages of 20-34 a real alternative of social and labour market insertion through self-employment. This is achieved through group sessions aimed at helping participants understand the steps to follow to set up a business, individual guidance and advice sessions and the possibility of loans through micro-finance.