In 2024, Cooperativa Futura launched a cultural and professional transformation like never before. Founded with the mission of supporting the employment of people with disabilities, the Cooperative chose to move beyond a primarily medical-assistance approach and embrace a model of empowerment and inclusive innovation.
The project was implemented through Spark by Innovamey, the offering that combines training, events, and transformative engagement pathways. With Spark, Futura did not simply organize a training session—it took the first step toward a true innovation of its service model: rethinking the role of occupational therapists as Diversity Managers to be offered in outsourcing to companies.
CEO Gianluca Paravan had the vision to launch a program dedicated to occupational therapists with an ambitious goal: to train them as professionals able not only to manage inclusion processes, but also to engage with corporates and SMEs on the strategic role diversity plays today in ESG, competitiveness, and sustainability.
Many organizations include people with disabilities, but don’t know how to talk about it—or are afraid to. A taboo persists, reducing inclusion to an “assistential gesture” rather than a lever for innovation and competitiveness. The Futura case addresses one of the most overlooked categories of diversity. In Italy:
Over 80% of people with disabilities are unemployed (vs. an EU average above 50%).
Only 14% of companies have initiatives specifically targeting disability.
Media representation is nearly absent, generating a widespread effect of cultural invisibility.
The journey, co-designed with Innovamey, enabled therapists to reinterpret their roles. No longer just “healthcare operators,” but agents of change, with three new realizations:
During the training, therapists experienced powerful moments: practical exercises, direct testimonies, and workshops that challenged ingrained stereotypes. Many realized that even where inclusion was already practiced, there was a lack of language and narrative capable of making this value visible outside.
Thanks to this journey, Futura has redefined its identity:
No longer just clinical support, but a partner providing companies with Diversity Management expertise.
No longer invisibility, but the ability to narrate the social and economic value of inclusion.
No longer distant from corporates, but engaging as peers with companies integrating the social dimension into their ESG strategies.
“We met the Innovamey team during a training session on D&I. It became an intimate and disruptive moment, full of useful insights—exactly what we needed. With Aram and the Innovamey team, we want to keep shining a light on inclusion best practices, to offer companies in our region new ideas and innovative projects to develop together.”
CEO Gianluca
With Spark, Innovamey created a transformative space to rethink roles, language, and service models — not a training session, but a prototype of innovation for Futura’s business. We integrated:
[02]
We built a new business end-to-end, from brand to website, from platform to go-to-market.
[04]
Linking disability inclusion to ESG frameworks, now critical for talent attraction, access to capital, reputation, and growth.
Therapists → Diversity Managers: new skills and career paths.
Cooperativa Futura → repositioned as a social and economic innovator.
New business opportunities: consultancy and partnerships with corporates and SME consortia.
Renewed purpose: from clinical support to the role of cultural and entrepreneurial catalyst for the region.
Thanks to Spark, the journey with Innovamey was not just training but the first step in true service innovation. Futura has reimagined the role of its professionals, transforming them into outsourced Diversity Managers: figures capable of bringing strategic, cultural, and competitive value inside companies. A new model that demonstrates how inclusion, when activated with method, becomes not only social purpose but also a lever for business and sustainability.
The Futura case shows that:
