Annual evaluation and SROI of the programme “Nessuno Escluso” to contrast social exclusion and educational poverty in Tuscany

Title Nessuno escluso – Supporting Communities in Tuscany

Location Florence (Le Piagge, Campi Bisenzio, Prato, Empoli)

Duration September 2017 – April 2022

Project Leader Oxfam Italia

Partners Cooperativa sociale Macramè, Cooperativa Il Piccolo Principe, Metropolis, Associazione Cieli Aperti, ASEV, Unione dei Comuni Empolese Valdelsa, Cooperativa Pane & Rose, Comune di Prato

Funding Burberry Foundation

 

Context

The area including Prato, Firenze, Campi Bisenzio and Empoli is home to some of the industrial excellence of the luxury textile and leather goods sector but is confronted with increasing levels of poverty, youth unemployment and immigration. After years of deep economic recession, many people, especially young people and those from migrant backgrounds, have found themselves caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, isolation, unemployment and low levels of education.

Industry leader Burberry – in line with its sustainability strategy that aims to generate a positive impact on the community life of the people it employs – thanks to the Burberry Foundation and Oxfam has promoted a social inclusion and educational poverty alleviation program aimed at citizens of Empoli, Campi Bisenzio, Prato and Florence.

The project had 3 components:

  • Community Centers, with the aim of encouraging the participation of families in the life of the territory
  • the Community Facilitators, to facilitate access to services for migrant and more vulnerable groups
  • the Activities in Schools, to combat school dropout and educational poverty, through School Mentoring and Inclusive Teaching.

 

General objective

The M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit was involved to carry out an initial needs analysis (need assessment) and subsequently conduct the external evaluation of the program on an annual basis; to carry out an estimation of the social impact generated by the program on the ground through the SROI, Social Return on Investment, analysis methodology on two of the three project components-the community centers and community facilitators; and finally to evaluate the impact of school mentoring and inclusive education activities in the schools involved by applying the EHD, Evaluating Human Development, methodology.

 

Our contribution

On an annual basis, between January and April of 2019, 2020, 2021, and during the summer of 2022, ARCO conducted the external evaluation with a methodology based on the use of mixed qualitative and quantitative methods. Field visits to schools and community centers identified by the project allowed for participatory activities designed to engage project staff and beneficiaries in the evaluation.

Each annual evaluation report considers the three components of countering educational poverty on which the project was based-community centers, community facilitators, and actions in schools-identifies the various obstacles encountered during the implementation of activities and makes recommendations for subsequent years.

To estimate the social impact of the project, the M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit employed the SROI methodology, Social Return on Investment, because it allows for the construction of a narrative of the social change triggered through a participatory research process using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods.
SROI also allows organizations to improve their communication and accountability, but also to increase their transparency regarding the use of human and economic resources. In fact, the SROI index can also be interpreted as an index of efficiency in that it allows the measurement of an organization’s ability to transform invested resources into actions that generate a social return.

SROI index indice social return on investment social impact impatto sociale

The application of the methodology resulted in an SROI of 3.47. This means that for every 1 euro invested, a social and economic return of 3.47 euro was generated.

 

For the evaluation of school mentoring and inclusive teaching activities, ARCO employed the EHD methodology. This methodology based on the Capability Approach developed by Amartya Sen uses a set of multidimensional indicators related to the Sustainable Human Development paradigm. The main tool in the application of this theory are Structured Focus Group Discussions, employed by the research team to engage project beneficiaries who took part in the activities in the schools, to carry out impact estimation and attribution through the definition of a perceived counterfactual

Read more on our M&E and Impact Evaluation Unit