OHL supports three projects for the labor market integration of refugees, young people without sources of income and homeless people

Today, OHL held the presentation of the prizes awarded in the OHL Group’s First Call for Social Projects, at its corporate headquarters in Madrid, Torrespacio, during a ceremony hosted by the company’s CEO, Tomás García Madrid. The initiative has been promoted in conjunction with Fundación Konecta and chose three projects from among the 29 submitted by employees of the Group, to be carried out by CEAR -Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado-, Fundación Manolo Maestre Dávila and Asociación Realidades para la Integración Social. The winning organizations will receive a total of 11,000 euros in prize money divided into 5,000 euros for the top project and 3,000 euros each for the runners-up.

The First OHL Group In-House Call for Social Projects is set in the framework of the  OHL Group‘s Corporate Responsibility policy and is intended to give impetus to social projects backed by its employees and implemented by third sector entities that pursue the  labor market integration of people at risk of exclusion. This was what Tomás García Madrid highlighted during his opening speech at the ceremony. Likewise, he expressed his satisfaction with the fact that “a part of the company’s community involvement takes place through initiatives by its employees”.

In this first call for proposals, supported by Fundación Konecta, which took charge of the overall  coordination of the initiative together with the examination of the proposals and the pre-selection of the finalists, the winning projects were chosen by a jury made up by Luis García-Linares, Corporate General Manager of OHL and Chair of the jury; Joaquín Garralda, Dean of Academic Organization of Instituto Empresa;  José Manuel González Huesa, General Manager of Servimedia; Alfonso Gordon, HR & Organization General Manager of OHL; María Eugenia Larrégola, Institutional Relations Manager of Fundación Lealtad; María Ruspoli, Head of the Community Involvement, Sponsorship and Patronage Service of OHL; Pilar Villarino, Executive Manager of CERMI, and Manuel Villén, Innovation & Sustainability Manager of OHL. The office of secretary of the jury was held by Graciela de la Morena, Director of Fundación Konecta.

The winning projects

Comisión española de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR) with its Formacear project for vocational training specialized in food-handling, forklift operator and stocker courses, offered to 35 stateless persons, refugees or migrants for the purpose of facilitating their access to the labor market.

Fundación Manolo Maestre Dávila, submitted a proposal consisting of university scholarships for students from marginal neighborhoods in Seville and Jerez. A call for applications will be launched for 14 scholarships, worth 500 euros each, for university students at risk of exclusion resident in the neighborhoods of Polígono Sur and Tres Mil Viviendas in Seville or Cerro Amate and San Telmo in Jerez.

Asociación Realidades para la Integración Social, with the PULSAR project: Labor Market Integration Project for Homeless People. The key to the project is a personalized itinerary of integration and intensive social accompaniment for facilitating the labor market integration of homeless people and people at risk of homelessness. This initiative has been underway in the Community of Madrid since 2009 and is estimated by the end of the process to have benefited 225 people in the cities of Madrid, Coslada and San Fernando.

In the center of the photo, Tomás García Madrid, surrounded by prize-winners and OHL Group senior management staff.