More users, more services, more workers, and more revenue. 2023 was an expansive year for Suara Cooperativa, which increased its turnover to 133.3 million euros, 21.4% more than the previous year. This figure grew in parallel with the increase in the number of people served, which rose by 18%, reaching 49,282.
Furthermore, taking into account factors such as the improvement in the quality of life of the people served, job creation, professional development, and innovation, Suara accumulated an integrated social value of 282.9 million in 2023, 23.7% more than it gathered last year through the cooperative's nearly 300 services and projects, co-directed by Tomàs Llompart and Laura Peracaula.
These services offered by Suara, which has more than 40 years of history, include initiatives focused on all phases of people's life cycle: from childcare with facilities such as nurseries and shelters for minors, to the elderly, with residential centers and home care, as well as support for families and people at risk of social exclusion.
These services and projects are complemented by initiatives such as the digital dependency portal Aliura, launched by Suara in 2023 to offer resources for both dependent people and their families in a centralized manner, the first platform of its kind in Catalonia.
The 2023 fiscal year included another launch by the cooperative: the Social Digital Lab, which works to transform the support for people in all life stages through technologies such as robotics, sensors, virtual reality, and AI. In addition, Suara's growth has led it to have a presence in the Balearic Islands, Castilla-León, Navarra, La Rioja, Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia, and Madrid, as well as in Chile, in addition to Catalonia.
Women are the majority
Women play a prominent role in Suara. Thus, 53% of the people served in 2023 were women, but this role goes beyond users, and with larger proportions. In this sense, eight of the nine positions on Suara's Governing Council are held by women, as decided in its recent general assembly, and 78% of the members of the Strategic Management Council are also women.
Along the same lines, 85% of the cooperative's members are women, in an exercise in which Suara registered a 10% increase in the number of members, up to 1,564. This number of members has continued to grow so far in 2024, and now stands at 1,673.
In addition, women represent 89% of the cooperative's 5,322 workers. Employees, who received more than 71,000 hours of training in 2023, grew by 6.5% during the year, in line with the growth that consolidates Suara as a leading social initiative and non-profit cooperative company in Catalonia in the provision of services to people.