Gas bill of 730 thousand euros, San Patrignano at risk of closure – Emilia Romagna

The increase in energy costs, with rising bills weighing on household and business budgets, brings with it risks San Patrignano, Europe’s largest recovery community Forced to contend with the dizzying rise in prices that could push the structure located on the hills of Rimini to close entire sectors.

In fact, utility costs have also risen significantly for Sanpa, which in recent days received a bill of 730 thousand euros for gas consumed in the month of August alone. More than ten times the amount paid for the same period last year when the bill was 70,000 euros.

Figures that might upset the balance – made up of social commitment, redemption through work and the creation of high-quality products – have been worked out by a Romanian society born in 1978 which, for more than 40 years, has welcomed boys and girls with addiction problems completely free without The need for any contribution from their families.

Since its founding, Sanpa has hosted more than 26,000 people, providing them with a home, health and legal assistance, the opportunity to study, learn a job, change their lives, and give back fully to society. Moreover, over time, 4,000 years of prison sentences have been diverted to alternative methods of imprisonment, resulting in a significant reduction in the social costs to the public sector.

Now, having grown in every field, energy costs are having such an impact on San Patrignano, that they jeopardize the activities planned to train young people involved in the path of recovery. The fear that pervades the Rimini structure is to jeopardize even the economic sustainability model that society has been able to implement, and thus its ability to accommodate an increasing number of people.

At this time, San Patrignano welcomes about 700 young people with addiction problems free of charge and about 225 employees, collaborators and volunteers work in various internal and external activities of the community.

San Patrignano is currently a social enterprise divided into about 40 training sectors – from kitchens to craft workshops, from bakery to food, from horseback riding to design – many of which are made possible by activity thanks to the use of energy. It has become very expensive but necessary to support the productive backbone of society.

It has been emphasized that the massive increase in energy prices is today putting in crisis “all non-profit organizations like San Patrignano who are committed, not to make a profit, but to give a chance to come back to live for thousands of people. For this reason, society is asking institutions and politics to urgently intervene to find Solutions that allow San Patrignano and other third sector entities to carry out their work.”