My name is Gina English from Social Enterprise Kent. It's the first time I've been in person to the
Social Value Conference, and so far, it's been really interesting. I particularly enjoyed the session from Australia. It was nice to hear what they're doing there to drive change. We have legislation, which is a massive bonus, so it did make me appreciate that we do have laws backing up Social Value and making it a priority.
I'm looking forward to catching up on the sessions I didn't see - I understand we get them recorded, so it's going to be interesting to see what others had to say. I really enjoyed the panel discussion in the morning about laying the groundwork today for things that we're probably not going to be around to see. Knowing the positive impact we're going to have on future generations by the work that we're doing today is pretty awesome.
Last October, we were in London at the Impact Awards. We partnered with Sodexo to be their Social Value delivery partner at the Inland Border Facility contract in Ashford, Kent, and were recognised as highly commended in our category for the partnership. They're one of your sponsors for the conference, and are a really forward-thinking organisation in terms of social enterprise, so it's been a pleasure for us to partner with them. That partnership focused on upskilling local businesses in the Kent and North Wales community.
We also worked with their Stop Hunger Foundation charity, which gave us grant funding to open our second social supermarket in Ashford to support people who are facing food poverty and to reduce food waste. From that social supermarket, we also deliver wraparound support services so we can holistically help people with employment support, budgeting, and digital skills.
We've also worked with Amey, the infrastructure organisation. They work on Kent Highways, and we help them support care-experienced young people with employment. Over the last two years, we've helped them recruit five care-experienced young people into their workforce and apprenticeships.
The first three who were employed in the first year will now have passed their apprenticeship. It's been really nice following their journey. The Social Value Manager at Amey has been genuinely supportive and keeps us up to date.
When people are really invested in delivering positive social impact and making a real difference in people's lives, it makes our job easier.
Gina English, Director of Social Value, Social Enterprise Kent
Seeking collaborations is all about networking. It's about being in places like the Social Value Conference and speaking to organisations that are on the same page. It's important when collaborating with organisations that they're not ticking a box - that they believe in Social Value and having a positive impact on people's lives. I've found that living on your own moral principles and leaving the world in a better place than you found it is key. The people who work in this space believe in the concept of "let's get up today and have a positive impact in the area that I work in."
The work that I do in this collaborative space means that people benefit. And our care-experienced young people, who we've got a really high proportion in Kent, around 2,000 care leavers a year, their life outcomes are significantly different to their peers. Any help and support we can give by allowing them to find a community, have a long-term established role and build a career and a life is a massive win.
Five people may not sound like a lot, but to me and Mel (Amey's Social Value manager), it fills us with pride every time we speak about them, looking at their journey and where they are now, because we know that we've made a difference in their lives. That's the main driver.
We had up to 12 spaces to train young people. They didn't all finish because it wasn't the right place for some of them. I think the saddest part was that there were only three apprenticeship positions year on year to fill, which meant other young people, even though they were coached, skilled, and ready for the interview process, didn't manage to get that opportunity. That was a bit of a shame for us.
So we've put in a bid for another grant with Sodexo, to support care-experienced young people and NEETs as well. One of the focuses now is to make sure there's more employer engagement - that there are more opportunities at the end of it. Not only that, but also because of who's in the cohort, they might not be ready to go into work. So we've adjusted again; you have to keep learning and keep understanding.
Now it's about seeing if we can support them in volunteering or other opportunities. For instance, you can do the Social Value measurements, for which you've paid for these people to have training, but it's the people that matter; it's always about the people, and we can do more to help them.
It doesn't feel like work every day when you're doing something that makes a change. It's a real privilege to do what we do.
Gina English, Director of Social Value, Social Enterprise Kent
If they've been bounced around the care system, they may have missed out on those budgeting, cookery lessons and life skills training because they haven't grown up in a family home. So, effective youth engagement is packing in as much as we can that's going to benefit them, whether or not they choose to go into employment. It might be that they want to be volunteers somewhere because they're not ready to be employed.
Therefore, it's about giving them options for skills, opportunities, and showing them what's available. Because at some point, they're going to use that CV, and they're going to use those interview or life skills. But for now, it's important to have a one-to-one approach with them, meeting them where they are, and then seeing what we can do for them next.
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