This Tuesday, March 11, the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility of Microsoft worldwide, Lori Forte Harnick, visited the headquarters of the Fundació Catalana del Esplai. Lori Forte was received by the president of the Foundation, Josep Gassó, and by the general director of the Esplai Foundation, Imma Mayol.
To assess the 15 years of collaboration in the promotion of social inclusion programs through new technologies
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| Representatives of Microsoft and the Foundation |
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| From left to right, Imma Mayol (FE), Akthar Bashah and Lori Forte (Microsoft) and Josep Gassó (FCE). |
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| A moment of the working meeting |
This Tuesday, March 11, the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility of Microsoft worldwide, Lori Forte Harnick, visited the headquarters of the Fundació Catalana del Esplai. Lori Forte was received by the president of the Foundation, Josep Gassó and by the general director of the Esplai Foundation, Imma Mayol.
During the visit they were able to assess the 15 years of collaboration between the Esplai Foundation and the multinational computer company, promoting digital inclusion programs in Catalonia, Spain and Europe. Also present at the visit was Akhtar Badshah, senior director of social affairs of Microsoft, Una O’Sullivan, Microsoft’s Director of Social Affairs for Western Europe, as well as Carlos de la Iglesia, Director of Communication and Corporate Development at Microsoft Ibérica and Carles Grau, Director of Public Sector at Microsoft Ibérica.
Working together since 1999
Microsoft and Fundación Esplai have been collaborating since 1999 developing social inclusion projects through ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). The projects derived from this collaboration have evolved from the computerization of associations at first, to the development of methodologies and contents for overcoming the digital divide, implemented the Conecta Network of telecenters throughout Spain thanks to the collaboration with social entities, and intergenerational projects such as “Telecentros”.Conecta Jovenwhere young people teach the use of ICT to adults and seniors through a Learning and Service methodology.
With 98 centers opened, 380,000 people benefiting from training activities and 16,000 young participants, the Esplai Foundation is continuously reformulating its projects in order to respond to current social urgencies, placing emphasis in recent years on the employability of the youngest and implementing innovative projects such as scholarship. MOSa program for the improvement of the curriculum of people between 16 and 30 years old through the subsidized accreditation in MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) of their digital competencies.