The company of Novara is a leader in the plumbing and heating sector and has its historical site in the territory of San Maurizio, which represents its socio-economic context of reference. In 1998-99 there wasn’t a nursery or a kindergarten in this territory or in the neighbouring municipalities, in which most of the employees lived: the closest one was 15 km far and had long waiting lists. A survey revealed that employees, with an average age of 35 years, were in difficulty since they were not able to find a proper child-care structure for their children. In order to bridge the territory gaps, the management decided to provide the employees’ families with a nursery and kindergarten service by creating a structure capable of accommodating 80-85 children from 9 months to 6 years of age.
The desire to cover such a wide age range was dictated by pedagogical and educational choices guided by the conviction that continuity can be a fundamental quality element in the educational process of a child.
The architectural structure of the nursery and kindergarten looks like a large aquarium with transparent windows to offer a place of permeability between inside and outside. The service is highly innovative: the pedagogical project and staff training are taken care of by Reggio children through training internships within municipal services in Reggio Emilia with permanent staff training.
Active since 2003 only for employees, since 2013 the service is open to all children in the territory. In addition to this, there are low-cost housing projects for employees. The company is attentive to work-life balance, and in particular to working mothers, who have time management needs linked to childcare. It is also worth mentioning the presence of a trade union agreement that launched the ‘solidarity hours bank’, a tool that allows intervention in critical situations.
In 2020 the company received the prestigious 5W rating within Generali’s Welfare Index PMI project.