Family assistance
Right from the outset, Pirelli’s focus on the wellbeing of its employees extended to their families as well. The first funds for kindergartens were already being granted in the late nineteenth century for the children of employees and in 1931 an internal nursery school and after-school facility was set up in the fifteenth-century Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, at the very heart of the Pirelli Headquarters. In 1955, when the villa became the company’s official reception venue, a new kindergarten was opened. It was built by the municipality with a fundamental contribution from Pirelli, and it was open not only to the children of employees but to all the children in the Bicocca district. Known as the Maria Pirelli kindergarten, it could take in 210 children, of whom 130 were the children of “Pirelliani”. New modern premises were also set up as an after-school centre, in a building that was opened in 1956, taking in 100 children in two shifts, with three classrooms, a refectory, an atrium for recreation, a garden and a small sports field. Scholarships were awarded for older students through the Fondazione Giovan Battista Pirelli, which was established in 1932, and the Fondazione Piero e Alberto Pirelli, which started up in 1947.
Camps were put on for the summer holidays, with the assistance of external organisations – as was the case with the camp in the Alpine village of Piambello (Varese), run by the Touring Club Italiano – or at Pirelli’s own facilities: the heliotherapy colony on Lake Vimodrone, built in 1939, and the seaside colony in Pietraligure, which started up in 1947, with room for more than 300 children.
Family support also included care for the elderly: in 1947 the Fondazione Piero e Alberto Pirelli purchased the Villa Porro Lambertenghi in Induno Olona, in the province of Varese, and converted it into a retirement home with the aim of “offering the company’s elderly workers a surety against loneliness and economic hardship”.
Family support continues to this day with reserved places and discounts at the Bambini Bicocca nursery school, scholarships, contributions towards the purchase of school books and summer camps and study holidays, both in Italy and abroad. But there is also a support service for caregiver employees who assist a family member or relative who is not self-sufficient.
Right from the outset, Pirelli’s focus on the wellbeing of its employees extended to their families as well. The first funds for kindergartens were already being granted in the late nineteenth century for the children of employees and in 1931 an internal nursery school and after-school facility was set up in the fifteenth-century Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, at the very heart of the Pirelli Headquarters. In 1955, when the villa became the company’s official reception venue, a new kindergarten was opened. It was built by the municipality with a fundamental contribution from Pirelli, and it was open not only to the children of employees but to all the children in the Bicocca district. Known as the Maria Pirelli kindergarten, it could take in 210 children, of whom 130 were the children of “Pirelliani”. New modern premises were also set up as an after-school centre, in a building that was opened in 1956, taking in 100 children in two shifts, with three classrooms, a refectory, an atrium for recreation, a garden and a small sports field. Scholarships were awarded for older students through the Fondazione Giovan Battista Pirelli, which was established in 1932, and the Fondazione Piero e Alberto Pirelli, which started up in 1947.
Camps were put on for the summer holidays, with the assistance of external organisations – as was the case with the camp in the Alpine village of Piambello (Varese), run by the Touring Club Italiano – or at Pirelli’s own facilities: the heliotherapy colony on Lake Vimodrone, built in 1939, and the seaside colony in Pietraligure, which started up in 1947, with room for more than 300 children.
Family support also included care for the elderly: in 1947 the Fondazione Piero e Alberto Pirelli purchased the Villa Porro Lambertenghi in Induno Olona, in the province of Varese, and converted it into a retirement home with the aim of “offering the company’s elderly workers a surety against loneliness and economic hardship”.
Family support continues to this day with reserved places and discounts at the Bambini Bicocca nursery school, scholarships, contributions towards the purchase of school books and summer camps and study holidays, both in Italy and abroad. But there is also a support service for caregiver employees who assist a family member or relative who is not self-sufficient.
