December 1996 In December, 1996 a group of people concerned with future prospects for prison inmates once released from penitentiaries got together to discuss solutions. It was decided that the re-integration of this population into the community would require the creation of viable employment opportunities, and an association was set up towards the realization of this goal. Associació Promotora de la Fundació Futur was established in March 1997, with two handcraft workshops set up in a small space in Putxet (a Barcelona neighbourhood) donated by the Hermanas Hospitalarias congregation. Initial support came from ASCA (Solidary Action against Unemployment), La Caixa Foundation and Diocesan Caritas in Barcelona. Since tailoring was the main work of Catalan prison inmates, one of the two workshops devoted its manufacture solely to this, while the other workshop was run by four penitentiary workers that produced electric lamps for external businesses. Futur eventually expanded its employment assistance program to reach other socially or labour-excluded individuals, something its members had in mind from the very inception of the association. The Futur organization now provides assistance and employment opportunities to the following: • Emancipated prison inmates • Homeless individuals • Victims of domestic violence • Single-parent families with scant resources • Individuals over 45 on long-term employment • People with drug or alcohol addiction • Immigrants • Physically handicapped individuals • Other labour-excluded groups Since labour-reinsertion is not an economically lucrative business, we realized the necessity of relying on other Futur activities to create the funds necessary to provide fair salaries for our workers and to further the development of our social assistance programs. A market analysis and an investigation into possible business sectors into which Futur activities might grow led us to the food and catering sector, where profitability and creativity could combine to create higher-paying prospects for labour-reinsertion and allow Futur to continue developing its programs. December 2000 Fundació Futur was established from the original Associació Promotora de la Fundació Futur in late 2000. It began as a private foundation of 14 members, and was registered with the Catalan government as Foundation 1468. An immediate change implemented by foundation members was the replacement of tailoring by catering as a main source of income generation. This prompted Futur’s move to its current location, given the availability of a kitchen, that has grown in size and production capacity to keep up with the growth of Futur’s catering services. Established as the basic tenets of were: • Contract, tuition and labour reinsertion of traditionally excluded individuals • Use, sale and promotion of fair trade products • Search social, economic and environmental sustainability Given our main objective of the creation of employment opportunities, we opened Café Just in April 2001 and have since opened other dining establishments. Café Just not only provides jobs, it also trains its chefs, confectioners and waiters so that are prepared for future participation in the larger employment market. January 2006 In 2002 the Catalan parliament approved a law for labour insertion in businesses (Medidas Legislativas para Regular las Empresas de Inserción Socio-laboral), as a means toward reducing labour discrimination. The law in and of itself was pioneering and a big step in the right direction, but it lacked a budget and solid content by which to achieve its aim. In 2005, the Catalan Department of Labour created a registry for insertion in business (Ley de Empresas de Inserción), which mandates that associations and foundations create simple everyday businesses that are profitable and E1 approved. While not all foundations have heeded the demands of the registry, Fundació Futur felt compelled by this legal imperative to create a business called Futur Just EI, SL, with 100% capital of its own. All financial resource is currently generated by this enterprise, which entails the management of cafes and bar/restaurants, our catering services, the school kitchen and dining room program and project Punt Just. A near future project is the creation of a large central kitchen in the outskirts of Barcelona in which to develop our catering service, our production of desserts and quinta gamma goods (the Italian term for ready-to-use, lightly-processed, perishable products requiring refrigeration), with all products bearing the fair trade label, to demonstrate our commitment to fair trade and ecological sustainability. How does the labour insertion program work? Once a new job has been created, one of several organizations is contacted, including Barcelona Social Services or the insertion program within the Catalan Justice. An individual is contracted for the position at a fair, CPI-regulated wage, and are given in-house training which is sometimes supplemented by external training (by the Restaurant Association, for example). When the individual is prepared to enter the labour market, which is usually in about a year’s time, he or she is assisted towards insertion in the employment market. In Futur’s first decade of activity, more than 150 people came through the foundation and joined the workforce. The insertion rate fluctuates, but is generally high, though we at Futur are less interested in statistics, and more interested in supporting the people we serve in reaching their goals and moving as far along toward reinsertion in the workforce as they choose to go. We currently employ 50 individuals, 24 of whom come from the previously-excluded labour pool. February 2009 / New location, new perspective Unable to renew the lease on our Hercules Street site, we moved to a 900 m2 warehouse in the Sant Martí - Verneda district. In the spring of 2009 we set up the offices and warehouses and in August the construction of the new central kitchen began. The plan for the new kitchen came out of the final step of Futur’s strategic growth plan for 2005-2010 (along with the Healthy School Meal Program and Punt Just). It was developed in response to the growing demand for our catering services by schools, nursing homes, businesses and individuals that could not be met in our previous kitchen facility. Several studies have indicated strong market growth in the ready-to-eat prepared foods, fair trade and organic products sectors. Based on these findings, the new kitchen will facilitate three production lines: • Catering for both small community and larger events • Production of ready-to-eat frozen dishes • Creation of pastry items made with fair trade ingredients The fact that everything to come out of our kitchen will be made with organic and fair trade products gives Futur a sustainable competitive advantage. Sales are projected to be strong internationally, but will more likely be concentrated within Europe, where fair trade and organic products are more readily consumed. In accordance with the principles of environmental sustainability that govern all of Futur’s activities (per the certifications ISO 14001 and EMAS) the kitchen will be built and maintained using clean, alternative energy and environmentally-friendly waste management methods. And like Futur’s other projects, the kitchen will be a place where those who are typically excluded from the workforce will find themselves employed and contributing. We expect our kitchen project to be innovative and long-term, with strong social and environmental elements that we believe will bring significant value to the world of catering.
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