Caritas and Ministry of Trade and Commerce appreciate social engagement

19/03/2010

For three years the Caritas and Ministry of Trade and Commerce Baden-Württemberg award the "SME Award for social responsibility" in Baden-Württemberg. The manufacturer of the Walser dental matrices has taken part in the lending every year till now.

The prize goes to small and medium-sized enterprises in the country which voluntarily commit themselves to the public welfare. For the first meeting of the excellent enterprises the Caritas in Baden-Württemberg and the Ministry of Trade and Commerce have invited smaller and middle enterprises from the region of Freiburg to come to Freiburg for worthing the social engagement.

50 businessmen and political representatives from the economy region Freiburg and western Lake Constance were invited, so also the managing director of the sectional matrix manufacturer Dr. Walser Dental, Senator h.c. Gerhard R. Daiger, who passed important impulses on to the organizers and participants.

There are many possibilities how the enterprises get socially active: Some do application trainings with secondary modern high school pupils. Others organize a benefit meal for the children's home in their own town. For the Caritas in Baden-Württemberg and the Ministry of Trade and Commerce the meeting was now the prelude of a number of entrepreneurial network meetings in Freiburg. Further meetings are planned in the country. With the meeting the initiators of the prize want to pay tribute to the enterprises and present their engagement as an example for other enterprises in the regional public at the same time.

Enterprises which are awarded with the SME Award profit from it in multiple regard: By the meetings they get the opportunity to establish new contacts and to enlarge their networks at a regional level. Moreover, they can exchange oneself about how their social engagement can become the constituent of a socially responsible corporate management.

To this Steffen Heil, managing director of the Stuttgart Institute for Social Marketing: "Good deeds may be spoken! Definitely also the SME Award offers possibilities which one can use for the enterprise communication."

"Social engagement needs recognition. This is not only a demand but also a principle of Caritas", monsignor Bernhard Appel said. Respect and gratitude earns who imaginatively fights despite the economic crisis for people who lived on the edge of our society.

"Civic engagement of enterprises is becoming a more important component of our economy - to promote and to support the enterprises is becoming an increasingly more important aspect of the medium-sized businesses politics", so Minister of Trade and Commerce Ernst Pfister.