We are proud to announce that we have won the prestigious Terzjus Award 2025 “Volontari @work“ for our project dedicated to digital education in Italian penitentiary institutions!
The Italian award is promoted by Terzjus Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Labour and UnionCamere.
The ceremony took place on April 14 at the Italian House of Parliament in Rome, with Claudia Angelini (ST Foundation Country Manager) and Pietro Palella (ST Foundation President) attending the event. Among the other winning companies, in different categories and positions, were Edison, Unicredit, KPMG, Avio Aereo, and Lavazza.
Our journey began in 2009 with an initial three-year agreement with the Sesta Opera San Fedele Association. Through word of mouth, our project quickly expanded to other penitentiary institutions in Italy.
The project’s goal is to provide fundamental digital skills to inmates, facilitating their reintegration into society and improving their future opportunities. We provide free loans of refurbished computers and equipment, generously donated by STMicroelectronics. This equipment is placed in specific rooms of the prison designated as laboratories for the duration of the agreements, usually three years and renewable.
Our course uses the Train-the-Trainer methodology, a distinctive feature of our Foundation chosen to amplify the work of our volunteers. A team of volunteers trains a class of about ten aspiring teachers, selected by the Institution. The training starts with a basic course of about 20 hours, managed according to agreements with the Institution administration, which also selects participants based on competence, interest, and availability.
During the course, students learn basic computer skills, how to use the Microsoft Office package with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; they learn to create and use an email account, navigate the Internet and search for information, and finally learn rudiments of security, including those related to passwords. Everything is managed in compliance with internal regulations.
Once trained, the aspiring volunteer teachers participate in a specific eight-hour training course. Here, the main goal is to learn how to manage a class, answer questions, handle equipment, write reports, etc.
The “train-the-trainer” formula has proven fundamental for this expansion: inmate-teachers, trained by the Foundation, are able to continue delivering courses independently, managing the entire training process, from candidate selection to equipment maintenance, to learning verification and language support. We remain supportive from the outside, where necessary, but the exponential impact of digital education continues even without us!
Our course in penitentiary institutions has expanded internationally, for example in India, where since 2014 agreements have been reached in 14 penitentiary institutions, involving about twenty active trainers and over 11,000 final beneficiaries (read this story here). We are also expanding here in Italy, developing new agreements and partnerships, thanks to the constant availability of our volunteers, who find this experience enriching and meaningful.
From 2015 to today, we have delivered over 160 basic courses, 20 teacher courses, for a total of about 1,800 inmates, a result we are very proud of.
It is a day of joy and celebration, and we want to dedicate this win to our volunteers, in Italy and in the rest of the world, for their passion, dedication, and time devoted in providing computer literacy courses to the less fortunate, one bit at a time.
Watch the full award ceremony here (our speech is at 1:18:45) – Italian language only