The ONCE Social Group has awarded the FCC Group's solidarity in the Company category for promoting social projects aimed at reducing aspects such as inequality, poverty and the risk of social exclusion. 

The award was presented yesterday in the auditorium of the Sanchinarro Cultural Centre in Madrid, during the ONCE Madrid 2023 Social ONCE Group Solidarity Gala. The FCC Group's corporate human resources manager, Ramona Fernández Kelly, was in charge of collecting the award.

On behalf of all the people who make up the FCC Group, Ramona Fernández Kelly thanked the ONCE Social Group, as well as the jury for this year's edition, for having given the company this award. 

In her speech Fernández Kelly emphasised that "we are being rewarded for doing something that we understand to be inherent to the social commitment of any self-respecting company: being supportive, promoting, through our different lines of business, projects aimed at reducing inequality or the risk of social exclusion in the communities in which we work". At the same time, he added that "this award, in addition to pride, represents for us an enormous incentive to continue working and striving for a fairer, more inclusive world, in which equal opportunities are a reality".

FCC Group, through its different lines of business, carries out programmes to promote social development, culture, sport and health care. FCC shows a clear commitment to the integration of people with disabilities in the workplace, as a key element for social integration and personal improvement. It collaborates with specialised organisations that advise on recruitment management and support for people with disabilities and/or at risk of social exclusion. 

The jury of the Premios Solidarios Grupo Social ONCE Comunidad de Madrid was made up of Teresa Rodríguez Peco, President of the ONCE Territorial Council in Madrid; Cristina Arias Serna, General Councillor of ONCE; Mª Eugenia Carballedo Berlanga, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies; Luis Natalio Royo Paz, Delegate of ONCE Madrid; Mayte Antona López, member of the Board of Directors of the Press Association of Madrid; Mariano Casado Sierra, President of the Third Sector Platform of the Community of Madrid; Óscar Moral Ortega, President of CERMI Community of Madrid; David Olalla Vidal, 1st Vice-President of the Territorial Council of the ONCE in Madrid; and Paloma Navarro de la Madriz, 2nd Vice-President of the Territorial Council of the ONCE in Madrid.

15 years of intense collaboration

FCC has long supported various ONCE Foundation projects. An intense and very fruitful collaboration to which it has been committed for more than 15 years.

Throughout this period, the Group has been an instrument and a bridge for access to the world of work for hundreds of workers. Many have passed through the company as a transition to other companies or activities, others to acquire training and experience in the world of work with which to integrate more effectively into it; and many others, to stay in the company, forming part of the teams that make the Group possible.

Highest distinction

The Premios Solidarios Grupo Social ONCE Comunidad de Madrid 2023 Solidarity Awards are the highest distinction that ONCE grants at regional level, distinguishing those people, companies, NGOs, entities and bodies of the Public Administration and communication programmes or works that have stood out for their solidarity work in line with the essential values of the ONCE Social Group's Institutional Culture.

In the category of Institution, Organisation, Entity, NGO, the Solidarity Award went to the Legal Assistance Unit of the A LA PAR Foundation, for setting up this specialised help service, aimed at preventing possible abuses suffered by people with intellectual disabilities. It is a project, created in 2010, which works in coordination with all legal and protection agents.

In the Programme, article or communication project section, the award went to madridiario.es, an online newspaper with a long history in the Community of Madrid, with a strong presence in political and social environments and which includes information from the ONCE Social Group with total normality and assiduity. It places social information at the same level as the rest of the news, also by its top manager, the Chronicler of the Villa de Madrid, Constantino Mediavilla, who includes social commentary in all his media activity.

The Solidarios para la Persona Física went to Jesús Sanz Sebastián. With more than 14 years of experience working throughout the national scene, as director of CANDILEJA PRODUCCIONES, he has professionalised in the creation of family shows, related to different educational concepts, developing quality stage projects in which theatre works as a means of education and social transformation. Their productions involve professional actors with and without disabilities (physical and intellectual) and actors at risk of social exclusion to promote values such as inclusion, diversity and empathy.