Case Study of Yalla Trappan – Sweden

Abstract: Established in 2010 in the heart of the socially disadvantaged borough Rosengård in Malmö, Yalla Trappan (the Yalla Staircase) is a work-integration social enterprise (WISE) and women’s cooperative. Also, they define themselves as a work-integration social enterprise, a cooperative and as part of the social economy. Yalla Trappan’s social objective is to create jobs and increase economic independence for foreign-born women who are considered far-removed from the labour market. Yalla Trappan went through three project stages before becoming a full-fledged social enterprise and is today considered a success, not only on a local, but on the national as well as international levels. Yalla Trappan has grown from its six employees when founded to 14 in 2015 and 35 in 2018. It has and is achieving sustainability through a co-financing model and arrangement where commercial revenue is combined with financial activity support from the Employment Agency. Yalla Trappan is considered creating both social and economic value. Social value is brought by empowering previously “unemployable” foreign-born women through education, inclusion and employment. Economic value is developed by selling services and products, but also by potentially reducing the cost for the state for early retirement and disability pension costs. Yalla Trappan is today not only involved in their own day-to-day activities, but also in spreading their ideas, business model and ideals, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. In addition to this, and as an example of its success and potential impact on the global scale, the IKEA-part of their business model – their in-house sewing studio at IKEA – is about to expand nationally and internationally.