The ONCE Foundation supported a total of 83 entrepreneurial projects, promoted by people with disabilities, last year, within the Por Talento Emprende program. With it, the entity wants to promote self-employment and the labor integration of people with disabilities. This project is supported by the European Social Fund.
In this way, the rate of presentation and granting of aid that existed throughout 2020 is recovered, a year marked by the economic slowdown caused by the fight against the coronavirus. As for the profile of the beneficiaries of this aid, it is that of a male over 30 years old with physical disabilities who will receive, on average, just over 6,000 euros.
Thus, 61% of the 83 entrepreneurs who received help last year are men, according to the entity. Regarding the type of disability, 47%, 11%, 10% (specifically, visual disability) and 32%, mixed. And in terms of age, more than 92% are over 30 years old. The average aid given to each of the approved applications was 6,650 euros.
Among the approved projects are an ecological textile brand, an online secretarial service for SMEs, another healthy catering service, a renewable energy installation company, a scallop distributor, a tattoo center, a canine comprehensive center and a writing workshop creative, among others.
Regarding the geographical distribution, most of the approved undertakings come from Andalusia, with 26, Galicia (11), Madrid (7), Catalonia (7), Castilla y León (6), Asturias (6), Castilla-La Mancha (5), Valencian Community (4), Murcia (3) , the Canary Islands (2), the Balearic Islands (2) and Extremadura, La Rioja, the Basque Country and Navarra with one each.
Calls for aid
In the period of execution 2018-2022, Fundación ONCE will allocate 2.6 million euros to promote the entrepreneurship of people with disabilities. In addition, specific criteria have been incorporated into this call to favor, for example, the entrepreneurship of women with disabilities.
Entrepreneurs receive a fixed and minimum economic aid of 3,000 euros that can be increased depending on their profile: up to 2,000 euros plus groups with disabilities with special difficulty, among which are people with cerebral palsy, mental illness or intellectual disability; 1,000 euros more to women, the long-term unemployed, those over 45 and immigrants, and up to 2,000 euros more to victims of gender-based violence, single-parent families and those households with all members unemployed and minor children in charge.
On the other hand, companies that generate employment for other people with disabilities are also rewarded; projects that also promote the development of growing sectors such as organic farming; those that contribute to rural development and those that have to do with information technology and society, specialized tourism, health services, the environment, and those aimed at research and development or social innovation.
However, the total sum of the aid will not, in any case, exceed 18,000 euros.
