Interview with Alessandro Mele - President of La Cometa in Como, Italy
Alessandro Mele, you are the president of La Cometa, a Social Cooperative Society in Italy based in Como. How many years have you been involved in this experience, and why did you decide to join this initiative?
I was drawn to Cometa as a possibility for a new life, an opportunity to create a piece of social reality where everyone can find their path and be themselves. A “luminous trail” to follow amidst the general confusion the world is experiencing. I first came as a volunteer and have stayed for work for more than twenty years; I left a promising career in finance because I found more fulfillment in witnessing the rebirth of wounded children and young people.
Cometa is a non-profit organization. What is its purpose? When was it founded, and what projects is it currently carrying out? What needs does it address?
Cometa was born in the 1980s from the first “yes” to taking in a seriously ill child by Erasmo Figini and his wife Serena, supported by his brother Innocente and his wife Marina, always accompanied by their sister Mariagrazia. From there, a life grew that developed through hospitality and education. From meeting to meeting, Cometa has become a “city within a city,” a place where the meeting between people testifies to the certainty of a common good. In 2000, it was legally established as an Association to give a voice to the story that had begun, in collaboration with institutions. Since then, the hospitality has grown rapidly to meet the needs encountered: from the network of families available for foster care (about 70), supported by a multidisciplinary team, a day center was established, which welcomes 150 vulnerable or troubled children every day, supporting them in a study and disciplinary orientation path; the Oliver Twist School with over 400 students; mini-master programs for school dropouts or for immigrants and refugees; a woodworking shop, a bistro café, and a bakery-pastry shop where people with disabilities and vulnerabilities work; two outlets created in collaboration with the Inditex group and Oniverse. Today, more than 1,300 people enter Cometa every day, including beneficiaries, employees, and volunteers.
What method do you use to tackle these challenges?
In the spirit of Cometa, everyone is regarded as a son or daughter, starting with their uniqueness, and for this reason, they are welcomed, loved, and accompanied in discovering themselves and the world by learning through experience, regardless of their vulnerability. Realizing that one can love a stranger as much as one's own children has been the discovery that has characterized all the steps taken.
Does each entity have its own board of directors? How many employees are there? Do you have an external supervisory body?
The organization is structured according to the possibilities offered by Italian law for carrying out different activities, assigning responsibilities to the appropriate bodies. A mission council helps maintain the coherence of the board's decisions in relation to Cometa's purpose and spirit. Management is then supervised by external supervisory bodies that certify its correctness both in fiscal matters and in terms of vision and strategy, with the help of highly esteemed personalities from the business and finance world.
What have been the most important challenges and actions for you recently in fundraising in Italy? What initiatives do you undertake to achieve this?
50% of the activities are made possible by the generosity of many who decide to contribute to the hospitality and education of children and young people. Donations come from individuals, companies, and foundations in every form. We organize events and fundraising campaigns, always trying to share the spirit of Cometa so that people can encounter this life. Above all, we invite people to visit Cometa, as it is such a unique place that it is much easier to experience it directly than to see it on video or through words. In addition to charity dinners, at Christmas, our workshops produce high-quality pastry and carpentry products for a dedicated campaign offered to individuals, companies, and foundations. Support also comes from the initiatives of a network of friends (entrepreneurs and families) who are very active in philanthropy and promote personal fundraising initiatives: they want to help build the beauty of a place that, over time, can always be a welcoming and open home for everyone, a place where everyone can feel at home.
How important are relationships with companies and foundations? How does funding work? Where do you see opportunities for growth?
We propose partnerships to foundations and companies to implement customized, structured, and documented projects in which they can become protagonists. A relationship that, regardless of physical proximity, finds true sharing in methods and objectives: building true sustainability, especially concerning social impact. Engagement is very flexible, and when possible, it grows and develops also by seeing our spaces and, above all, the people who live in them.
What new projects does COMETA have planned, and how can they be supported?
We ask everyone to support a dream: to create new spaces and complete this “city within a city” that can illuminate with its “beauty” the quest for meaning that everyone increasingly has for their lives. We have many programs with a significant impact on beneficiaries, strong innovation, and great exemplary value, inspiring at both local and international levels, especially in education. The original approach to training that sees the relationship with companies and the value of “doing with” has various applications: a method that can requalify the value of school and education. For this reason, our reality is a center of excellence, indicated as a reference in Europe by UNESCO-Unevoc.
Do you already have contacts with funding partners in other countries? Why should they support Cometa?
Over the years, we have met many people from other countries with whom, individually or as a foundation or company, we have built significant projects for both the operational activities of hospitality, education, and job placement, as well as for structural investments. Some benefactors and companies come from Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Those who encounter Cometa are often deeply moved, touched, and eager to participate in some way in this story, but also to ensure that this place of hope for a more human life remains for everyone. As well as the possibility that this impact can be internationally inspiring for hospitality and education initiatives. For this reason, we invite everyone to this “meeting.” Do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] and to visit us in Como, Via Madruzza 36. You can find out more on our website www.puntocometa.org.