Eighty percent of the winners of the JES Program have created employment through their social impact projects. This piece of data is one of the main conclusions drawn from the study carried out by Universidad Europea on the social entrepreneurs related to the initiative, on the tenth anniversary of the JES Awards. A total of 90 individuals committed to achieving a positive impact on society participated in a survey that revealed, among other information, that after their time in the program, 95% of the entrepreneurs are still involved in social impact projects.
These young people committed to achieving a positive impact on society through their projects reported that close to 70% have been able to make a living off of their project. For those that abandoned their initiative, almost all say that they are involved in another social impact project (95% of those surveyed). In terms of their scope, 65% of the winners surveyed say that their project has had a positive impact on over 500 people. Furthermore, through this impact, 80% have contributed to creating employment. The JES Community is also noteworthy in terms of its international reach: 30% of those surveyed said that their project has had an impact outside of Spain, while 43% operate nationally, and 12% regionally (the rest say they operate in all three spheres).
In the opinion of the director of the JES Awards, Andrés Pina, “the fact that 95% are still involved in social impact projects supports our initial hypothesis; these young people have set social progress as a priority in their personal and professional lives, and therefore their commitment remains, regardless of where they work.” Moreover, “they are men and women who are collaborative by nature, and who have been bitten by the innovation bug, profiles that are perfect for promoting the alignment of their professional objectives and projects with the challenges that states, companies, and civil society have identified as imperative in the next 12 years, and which are grouped around the 17 SDGs,” Pina underlined. Those surveyed include social entrepreneurs of the stature of Francisco Polo, the current Secretary of State for Information Society and the Digital Agenda, and Miriam Reyes, founder of Aprendices Visuales.