Measuring the impact of sheltered workshopsthrough the SROI: A case analysis in southern Spain

Abstract

The socio-labour integration of people with disabilitiesis a major social problem for European countries and,especially, for Spain. Sheltered workshops, with theirproductive activity, are a kind of Work Integration SocialEnterprise (WISE) whose aim is to create jobs for thosepeople, supporting them through an insertion processinto the labour market. Given the need to publicizethe important role of sheltered workshops, the aim ofthis study is to contribute to the academic debate bymeasuring the added value of this kind of social enter-prise and to provide empirical evidence of their socialand economic impact. To do so, the impact of a spe-cific sheltered workshop, UNEI, located in the Span-ish region of Andalusia, is analyzed. Results allow us toconclude that, firstly, there is a demand to measure theimpact caused by sheltered workshops and social enter-prisesingeneral,andthatSROImethodologyisthemostappropriate methodology. And, secondly, being basedon results of this method and on a sensitivity analysisapplication, sheltered workshops contribute to sustain-able development, generating an impact much higherthan could be expected, surpassing the economic andpersonal limits of the people involved and benefittingsociety as a whole.