Endesa and its foundation are recognised for their support to the beneficiaries of fundación integra during the pandemic

• The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, presented the award to José Bogas, CEO of Endesa.
• These actions are part of a €25 million Public Responsibility Plan which Endesa launched to provide materials, aid, services, equipment and infrastructure for the fight against Covid-19 in its first phase. The plan has now been refocused to support the economic recovery of the country.

The Integra Foundation held its annual awards ceremony today. This time, it highlighted the efforts of third-sector companies and entities to help the foundation's beneficiaries to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.

The event was attended by Endesa CEO and vice-chair of the Endesa Foundation José Bogas, who accepted a special award on behalf of Endesa and its foundation from the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida in recognition of the economic and human support provided during the current crisis to improve the job prospects of people in serious situations of social exclusion who are beneficiaries of Fundación Integra programmes.

Endesa has given financial support to the Integra Foundation through its Public Responsibility Plan and the Endesa Foundation. A total of 100 company volunteers have also been training and supporting around 700 people in vulnerable situations.

Endesa's Public Responsibility Plan, launched at the beginning of the pandemic and endowed with 25 million euros, initially focused on palliating the social and health crisis where it was needed most (medical supplies for hospitals, healthcare, basic aid for vulnerable citizens, etc.). The focus is now on economic recovery. The Plan offers aid to SMEs, the self-employed, the unemployed and students who need digital resources for training so that no one is left behind because of this difficult situation for Spanish society.

Comprehensive information about the plan can be found here.

“Changing lives”

In recent months, the collaboration between the Endesa Foundation and the Integra Foundation that started in 2016 with their joint “Changing Lives” programme, has benefited almost 1,500 people, and has been strengthened and adapted to the current circumstances.

This consisted of an additional grant of €195,000 from the Endesa Foundation to support people in situations of social vulnerability whose economic situation and living conditions have been worsened by the lockdowns.

This aid has been delivered in two phases. During the initial phase, the Endesa Foundation donated €95,000 to pay for food, rent and to purchase supplies to assist 483 families.

A further €100,000 donated in the second phase has been used to give a new impetus to “Changing Lives”, a training and labour integration programme aimed at marginalised people that both foundations have been running jointly for four years. It has now been extended to people whose precarious circumstances have been aggravated by the pandemic.

This new impulse to the programme, under the name of “Changing More Lives”, has provided training to enhance the job prospects of 270 people in situations of social exclusion through virtual training and employment management actions, culminating in the signing of 121 new work contracts.

Although the “Changing Lives” programme was designed to be a face-to-face initiative, the circumstances of recent months have forced it to go virtual, a requirement which has been achieved efficiently, despite difficult circumstances. This has largely been made possible by the around 100 Endesa employee volunteers who have given pre-employment training workshops and have offered telephone support to help people particularly affected by the pandemic with emotional and work issues.

The “Changing Lives” programme began in 2016 in Barcelona and has since been extended to Seville, Madrid and Zaragoza. It has improved the job prospects of 1,419 people through training actions which have culminated in the signing of 1,434 work contracts, some of which were temporary contracts which have been signed successively by the same person.

About Endesa

Endesa is the leading electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. It is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. It is an integrated business operation that encompasses everything from generation to marketing, and through Endesa X it provides added value services to decarbonise energy used in homes, companies, industries and government agencies. Endesa is firmly committed to the UN SDGs and therefore decisively promotes the development of renewable energies through Enel Green Power Spain, the electrification of the economy and Corporate Social Responsibility. We also work in the latter area through the Endesa Foundation. We have some 10,000 employees. Endesa is part of Enel, the largest electricity group in Europe .

About the Endesa Foundation

The main aim of the Endesa Foundation, led by Juan Sánchez-Calero (the non-executive chairman of Endesa), is to contribute to social development through educational projects and employment, environmental and cultural training.

The Foundation’s educational projects seek to encourage innovation in education at all levels, promoting academic excellence at university level through grants, scholarships and lectureships.

Employment training projects focus on promoting the talent of people at risk of social exclusion, young entrepreneurs with limited resources and professionals over 50 years of age.

Its environmental projects primarily centre on promoting environmental education and energy efficiency.

As for its cultural projects, special mention should be made of those dedicated to the lighting of monuments, conserving and promoting the historical industrial heritage of the Spanish electricity sector and collaborating with top-level Spanish cultural entities.

The Endesa Foundation runs and funds programmes and activities to provide humanitarian, health, social, economic or material aid in extraordinary situations such as health crises, natural catastrophes and similar.

More information at: http://www.fundacionendesa.org/