Best practices in evaluating work integration social enterprises for persons with intellectual disabilities: A scoping review

Abstract

Social enterprise is emerging as a promising means of creating flexible employment transitions for people with intellectual disabilities. It has been adopted as an option largely in response to the extended periods of work adjustment and ongoing supportive work environments typical for this population, as well as challenges in identifying suitable and satisfying job matches in the conventional labour market. Creation of meaningful and sustainable employment in social enterprises resides at the intersection of social programming and business management, such that developers must attend to employee needs from a human resource and skills development perspective, while equally attending to sound business management practices. This scoping review aimed to identify best practices for evaluating emerging work integration social enterprises using established program evaluation methods as a means of guiding and monitoring practice. Sixteen studies met study selection criteria, and while not directly addressing the issue of evaluation quality, revealed a number of principles and practices for consideration by evaluators. Implications for evaluation practice are highlighted.

Transition from work integration social enterprises to ordinary employment in situations of low employability: results of an intervention programme

“…The literature shows that beyond the contributions that WISEs make to the qualification of people with greater difficulties in accessing ordinary employment, they highlight the differential conditions they offer, allowing them to approach and adapt to different personal and social situations. Relevant aspects are the structure and culture of the work environment (Joyce et al , 2022), long adaptation periods and intensive support (Lysaght, 2022), employer attitudes towards employee difficulties (McQuaid and Lindsay, 2002) or traits, capacities and behaviours that generate social value (Rey-Martí et al , 2021), and strengths of social enterprises. Its generalisation to the ordinary market is not simple; therefore, the accompaniment of workers once they finish their itinerary in the WISE, can contribute to prospecting and placement.…”

“…Beyond the contributions that work offers to society and the economy – starting from the belief in its innate value through giving purpose and meaning to life (McKinnon et al , 2020) – social enterprises arise. In this context of access to employment for people in vulnerable situations, the Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE) model was born: market-oriented companies were created with the main objective of improving the employment results of people from disadvantaged groups (Barton et al , 2022; Lysaght et al , 2022; McKinnon et al , 2020).…”