There is a date that marks the beginning of a story born almost silently, a few weeks before the world stopped: January 29, 2020. That day it came to life Amplifon Foundation, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Amplifon Group, world leader in hearing care services and solutions. No one could have imagined that, shortly thereafter, the elderly – the most fragile – would become the most painful face of the pandemic.
Six years later, that initial intuition has become a shared journey: «Six years after 29 January 2020, the day on which the Amplifon Foundation was born, we celebrate a journey made up of goals shared with many friends and partners. We continue to look forward, with the same conviction: to build inclusive communities capable of giving dignity to the most fragile elderly people”, states the president Susan Carol Holland.
“Hello!”, when technology rekindles relationships
The first major project was born precisely in the hardest months of the health emergency, inside the RSAs, the healthcare residences suddenly closed to the outside world. It’s called “Ciao!”: a simple, everyday, almost domestic name. A greeting that becomes a bridge.
The idea is clear: oOffer the elderly, isolated for safety reasons, the opportunity to see their loved ones again thanks to very high quality videoconferencing systems. Not just a screen, but a window open to affections. Over time, however, that project designed to combat loneliness turns into something broader. The tools donated during the pandemic become the vehicle for a real daily schedule: concerts, virtual trips, yoga lessons, art therapy, dialogues with artists and public figures, cooking courses. Opportunities to feel part of a living and interesting world again. Today “Hello!” involves around 30,000 elderly people in over 300 Italian RSAs, with another 30 facilities in five countries: Australia, France, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. Numbers that tell of a widespread presence, but above all re-established relationships.
Beauty as care
Over the years, however, the Foundation has understood that the relationship does not only pass through digital. There is another language, silent but powerful: that of spaces. Many RSAs are functional, but often impersonal, places marked by time. Yet even in old age – indeed, perhaps precisely then – beauty becomes essential. It can impact well-being, relationships and a sense of belonging. From this awareness a new step is born: work on the green spaces of the residences, transforming courtyards and gardens into meeting places.
To do this, Amplifon Foundation involves one of the most authoritative figures in international architecture, Benedetta Tagliabue, founder of the EMBT studio. Not a design object as an end in itself, but a piece of furniture capable of generating relationships. «The Amplifon Foundation, in imagining a design product for the elderly who live in RSAs every day, wanted to invest in beauty and human relationships, the founding bases of life and which must be possible even in times of old age and fragility», he explains Maria Cristina Ferradini, delegated advisor of the Foundation. «It is an outdoor furniture, created to give shape to spaces that are often not very hospitable, so that they become beautiful and alive. Furthermore, it is designed to be easily built and adapted, with the help of Amplifon volunteers and anyone who wants to be part of this project.”
Simplicity, in fact, is not a technical detail but a meaningful choice: the furniture is designed to be easily installed, so as to involve volunteers – many of whom are Amplifon employees – in a concrete experience alongside the elderly. In 2025, 40% of the company’s Italian employees participated in volunteering activities (against a company average of 22%, according to the Goodera Volunteering Quotient Report 2025), for a total of over 2,300 hours, 50 events and 900 participations. Signs of a culture that puts relationships at the center.
Finding the sky, the light, the time
The heart of the project is simple and profoundly human: giving the elderly back their place in the world. Also and above all in outdoor spaces. «The Amplifon Foundation is committed to improving the quality of life of older people, remembering how fundamental it is to remain in relationship: with the younger generations, with nature, with the body and with emotions. Feeling and being embraced, not losing contact with beauty, with the sky, with the light, with what surrounds us”, he says Benedetta Tagliabue.
The furniture prototype designed for RSAs aims to be precisely this: an invitation to go out, to sit down, to stop together. «An element capable of transforming courtyards and gardens into welcoming, beautiful, desirable places. Spaces that invite you to go out, to sit down, to stop.” In a time that tends to hide fragility, the choice goes against the grain: making old age visible, giving it dignity, offering it places of beauty. «With the support and collaboration of the younger generations, the residents of the residences can rediscover the desire to experience outdoor space: telling stories, sharing memories, observing changes, discovering small innovations in the environment around them. Sit together, talk, listen, look at each other.” And again: «Finding the sun, the sky, the vegetation. Feel the air, the light, the passage of time. Because being outside, accompanied by others, is not just a pleasure: it is a real cure.” Ultimately, this is the lesson that emerges from six years of journey: technology can bring people closer together, design can transform, volunteering can build bridges.
