The Services and Solidarity Cooperative (Cooperativa Sociale Solidarietà e Servizi) was founded in 1979 in Busto Arsizio, the Lombardy region of Italy. The cooperative has been working for more than 30 years to provide daily residential and job placement services for people with disabilities and those in marginalized communities.
Its aim is twofold: to raise the independence of disabled people, providing the right training and skills to enable them to take an active role in the economy, and to raise awareness of the contribution that disabled people can make to society.
Initially, the organization received a single Microsoft Office donation through TechSoup Italia, but its staff members quickly realized that they also needed more robust collaborative technologies to succeed at meeting the needs of their community and mission. With the help of TechSoup Italia, they identified Microsoft SharePoint as the software they needed to act as the collaborative workplace they always knew they were.
Thanks to Microsoft SharePoint, the cooperative is now able to organize and collaborate more efficiently; staff members share ideas, manage projects with ease, and communicate better both internally and externally. As a result, they are able to reach out to more individuals who can benefit from the organization's services and are growing stronger in their mission to empower the disenfranchised.