The commitment with Brazil development and investment in social actions was always a practice of Votorantim Group, since its foundation, in 1918. With business expansion and modernization of corporate practices on this area, that was an urgent need to obtain better synergy among the diverse social initiatives. From this statement, Votorantim Institute was born in 2002.

Today Votorantim Institute is positioned as a knowledge area dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and servicing Group’s Sustainability. Its role is, above all, to stimulate Votorantim Group’s companies to incorporate CSR practices into business management in a strategic way and aligned to the corporate objectives.

Among all interest publics for Votorantim Group, respecting RSC concepts, community relationship is priority to Votorantim Institute. After all, to align, strengthen, and qualify external social investments was the initial mission of the Institute and still is one of its responsibilities.

From the social investment side, Votorantim Group elected young people as its acting priority and was one of the pioneers choosing the theme, yet in 2002. Focus is on the integral development of these 15 to 29 years-old Brazilians, prioritizing their education and their work.

Innovation also extends itself to cultural investments. Votorantim Group chose, as its focus, cultural democratization, supporting projects of effective public participation, which stimulates interest and broaden population access, mainly among young people, to the artistic manifests of the most diverse cultural areas.

In 2006, at the end of four years of acting, Votorantim Institute actions had already arrived to 170 Brazilian towns in 16 States, 1,743 schools, and benefited around 20 thousand educators and 96 thousand young people. Indirectly, all 70 projects sponsored by seven Votorantim Group Business Units, involved more than 340 thousand people.

To find out more about the Votorantim Institute, access the site http://www.institutovotorantim.org.br/