Summary

• Samsung Electronics Italia collaborated with Retake Milano to renew Robert Baden-Powell Park, a park located in the middle of Milan, Italy, in an initiative called SAVE (SAmsung Volunteer Employees) for Milan
• SAVE for Milan was carried out as part of Samsung Electronics Italia’s 27-year on-going effort to contribute to the communities it operates in

Volunteers for ‘SAVE for Milan’ vigorously restored Robert Baden-Powell Park to its former beauty

On July 12, 2018, more than 250 Samsung Electronics Italia employees gathered to ‘retake’ Robert Baden-Powell Park in a volunteer campaign called “SAVE for Milan.” The idea was to clean up an abandoned park and present it to the citizens of Milan as a renewed public area.

Reviving a Park That Had Seen Better Days

Robert Baden-Powell Park is located in the center of Milan, Italy near the Naviglio Grande, a historically important canal. It was built in 2005 to brighten up an area previously characterized by run-down shacks and warehouses. However, park fell into a state of despair over the years – mainly due to vandalism.

SEI employees work to remove the graffiti from the walls, entrances, pergolas, benches, light poles and the children’s area of the park

On the Thursday morning, Samsung Electronics’ employees who work out of the Milan office gathered at the Navigli District to revive the park. Divided into numerous teams, the volunteers removed graffiti that defaced all facets of the estate.

AMSA, a waste management service, joined the initiative. Not only did they help clean the garden prior to the paintwork, but also organized waste disposal, divided by type, in special containers and with dedicated vehicles at the end of the event.

Parco Robert Baden Powell before the volunteer event (left) and after (right)

Working with the Community

Being part of the wider “SAVE” – short for ‘SAmsung Volunteer Employee’ – initiative, a company-wide program that encourages employees to play an active role in giving back to the community, this project was carried out in collaboration with Retake Milano, a non-profit association that aims to “improve the quality of life through the enhancement of the Milan metropolitan area”; AMSA, the waste management service; and the Municipality of Milan.

After the park was successfully renewed, a roller and brush were handed over to Samsung Electronics Italia‘s management in the presence of Roberta Guaineri, Councilor for Tourism, Sport and Quality of Life; Eugenio Petz of the Department of Participation, Active Citizenship and Open Data; Santo Minniti, President of the area Municipio 6; and the citizens’ committee – as a symbol of the new cleaned Baden-Powell park.

“We are very grateful to Samsung employees who, with their SAVE project, have made such an ambitious project possible,” said Andrea Amato, president of Retake Milano. “A year ago, when the residents had reported this problem to us, it was unthinkable for us alone to make such an extensive intervention. I replied that an army would be needed. We found that army of volunteers in Samsung.”

Commitment to Communities We Operate In

Samsung Electronics Italia employees celebrate the renewed Robert Baden-Powell Park

“During our 27 years of operation in Italy, we have committed ourselves to innovations in various fields – from art to school, from safety to professional training – endeavoring to enhance digital technology to support specific local needs,” said Mario Levratto, Head of Marketing & External Relations, Samsung Electronics Italia. “Today we are pleased and proud to be able to make our contribution, though more physical than digital this time, for the enhancement of Milan, a city we are very much attached to.”

The SAVE for Milan initiative consolidates Samsung’s ties with Milan and its commitment to help transform it into an innovative and avant-garde metropolis. This commitment started with the creation of the Samsung District, where Samsung hosts meetings and conferences, which brought more than 200,000 visitors just in 2017.

Additional Images

A volunteer writes #SAVEforMilan, the title of the initiative, before painting over it with the rest of the graffiti

A team of Samsung Electronics Italia employee volunteers focus on their task of repainting park facilities

One of the groups celebrate in the park after completing their role in cleaning it up

Currently, there are more than three million people worldwide living with aphasia, a disorder that causes the loss of language capabilities. Aphasia is often the result of an injury to the parts of the brain that are responsible for speaking, reading, writing and understanding others.

Given the fact that language is the most important tool to communicate, aphasia can have negative effects on one’s social relationships and often takes a toll on one’s emotions.  But recent studies show that emojis, which are predicted to become a universal visual language of the future, can help people with language disorders like aphasia better express themselves.

Developed in collaboration with a team of speech therapists, Samsung Wemogee functions as a kind of translator between text and emojis. The app includes a library of more than 140 phrases related to basic needs and emotional expressions. The predefined phrases are translated into logical sequences of emojis and are divided into six main categories including: everyday life, eating and drinking, feelings, help, recreational activities, and anniversaries and celebrations.

Through a simple and intuitive interface, aphasic patients identify what they want to communicate through a panel of visual options, sending the chosen sequence of emojis to the non-aphasic recipient. The non-aphasic user will receive the message in text form and can then reply using pre-set textual phrases. Wemogee also works as a home practicing tool, enhancing the effectiveness of traditional rehabilitation treatment of aphasia.

“Aphasic patients understand emojis because they depict all aspects of emotions. The use of gestures, images and facial expressions is a function perfectly preserved in understanding and often also in the production of language,” explained Francesca Polini, a speech therapist and professor at the University of Milan, and codeveloper of the Wemogee app. “A pre-set list of well-defined phrases that refer to the most immediate needs of the individual is essential.”

Through the new Wemogee communication tool, Samsung hopes to continue to enhance the way all people interact with the ones they love.

The Android-compatible application will be available for free download on Google Play beginning April 28 and supports English and Italian languages. For more information, visit the Wemogee website.

The students collaborated on projects requiring them to utilize computational thinking skills to redesign their school environments to better suit their needs. Participating classes were given educational kits to guide them through the creative design process, and the three classes whose projects were deemed the most exceptional out of the 549 submissions were rewarded with Samsung technology and unique digital training opportunities. A team of LAGO professionals also helped the winners furnish their schools with their winning designs.

‘Smart Thinking’ is an evolution of the ‘Smart Coding’ program, launched by Samsung in 2015 with the objective of making coding and computational thinking instruction accessible to students, teachers and parents—in line with the Italian Ministry of Education’s guidelines. Eight hundred Italian schools were involved in the project, which offered students a chance to develop creative thinking and problem solving skills that they may successfully apply at school, at work, and in their lives.

‘Smart Coding’ and ‘Smart Thinking’ are part of the ‘Smart Future’ project—a corporate citizenship initiative launched by Samsung in 2013, in cooperation with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, and managed by an advisory board of education experts. The goal of the program is to drive the evolution of the Italian education system to help children develop competitive skills that will open doors to exciting opportunities in their futures.

‘Smart Future’ promotes digital teaching in primary and secondary Italian schools through the provision of technologies such as as e-boards and tablets, as well as the training and engagement of students, teachers and parents. Testament to the program’s success, after digitalizing 37 schools, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Italian Ministry of Education to accelerate the classroom-augmenting program, which had previously been capped at digitalizing 100 schools.