AEPER (Animation, Education, Prevention and Reintegration) is a social cooperative founded in Bergamo in 1986. Its primary aim is to provide hospitality to people in conditions of hardship and marginalization, through educational, cultural and health activities aimed at rehabilitation and social reintegration and work of individuals in fragile situations. The cooperative is part of the AEPER Group, organizations involved in social issues such as the Nazareth community, the AEPER association, the La Pèta Società Agricola cooperative, the Casa di Case project and the Don Primo Bonassi Foundation. The Cooperative represents one of the main entities active in the socio-health and educational sector of the Bergamo province, working to make local communities more inclusive through awareness-raising projects and meetings with local groups.
AEPER is now supported by Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell’Amore (or “FSVGDA”), which invested in the initiative as part of “Impact4Coop”: the program born from the synergy between FSVGDA and Fondazione Cariplo which implements 2.2MLN/€ to contribute to the capital strengthening and recovery of the cooperative sector, hard hit by the socio-economic effects generated by the pandemic.
Specifically, the investment operation was carried out, in a matching logic, following AEPER’s candidacy for the “Target 1” of the program (no longer active), aimed at Social Cooperatives that generate an impact in the reference territories of Fondazione Cariplo (Lombardy, provinces of Novara and Verbano Cusio Ossola) and who have resolved after 01/07/2021 and by 12/04/2022 a capital increase of an amount not exceeding €50,000.