COOPERATIVA DOWNLOAD / ALBERGO ETICO

Cooperativa Download is a cooperative that deals with the employment of people with disabilities through hotel activities grouped under the name “Albergo Etico”. The Albergo Etico project is an initiative started in Asti in 2006 by a group of professionals from the tourism, catering and architecture sectors, with the support of other key figures, in order to help improve the society in which they live. Ethical hotels are accommodation facilities that offer employment to disadvantaged people, particularly those with Down syndrome, mental delays and autistic syndromes.
Albergo Etico aims to offer a medium to high quality hospitality model that promotes the ethical element, offering not only a travel experience, but also a life experience.
Currently, Albergo Etico has locations in Italy, Argentina, Australia and Albania, with further openings planned in the United States and Norway. The goal of the initiatives is to develop an active and dynamic pathway aimed at the full exploitation of the potential of people with disabilities, providing them with support and accompaniment to work and helping them find the motivation they need to embark on a path of personal growth.
The Download Cooperative manages not only ethical hotels, but also contracts out hotellerie services and runs the “Accademia dell’Indipendenza” (Academy of Independence), a training and employment program that aims to promote the autonomy of people with disabilities. The course lasts three years and involves the gradual acquisition of skills needed to perform various tasks related to hotel and restaurant management, which they can then use both within the Ethical Hotel and in the family setting. Participants also learn how to become more independent and responsible, sleeping in staff-only rooms and living with their peers. Restart Italia’s support is aimed at supporting the Download cooperative’s ambitious initiatives, and in particular the renovation of the “new” headquarters of the Accademia e Albergo Etico in Asti.