Providing the best possible way to socially integrate disabled individuals with impairments or mental disorders. This is the goal that gwb – Cooperativa Laboratori Assistenza (Assistance Workshops Cooperative) has set for itself, and quality work is the means they use to achieve it. This private cooperative promotes professional and social skills for 75 employees and 14 assistants in three workshops in South Tyrol.
The employees are responsible for packing, labelling, selecting customer products, or producing new ones. They knot rugs and make a variety of items in wood. Some products are designed with the customer and made on commission.
Our illuminated tasting counter, equipped with a solid apple wood shelf, shows what the gwb collaborators are capable of. The same is also true for apple wood cutting boards, supports that describe the quality of the apple, and wooden tags. This durable equipment goes with us from shop to shop and fair to fair.
Work reinforces self-esteem, and a sense of belonging to a community gives life meaning.
Contributing through one’s own work to society’s well-being reinforces self-esteem. On the other hand, it is clear that there is much more to life than work. The experiences run the gamut and reinforce the sense of belonging to the community. For this reason, gwb not only promotes the acquisition of manual skills, but strives to establish interpersonal relationships. The assistants in the workshops work closely with the care workers and provide for basic needs and planning of free time.
Collaborators, assistants and care workers participate in the summer camps, take trips together, and play uplifting games. During the Christmas holidays, the program also includes sporting events and visits to businesses. Of course, the doors of the gwb workshops are also open to customers.
For more information on gwb, products and information on collaborative opportunities: www.gwb.bz.it
