Posted 12th August 2022
Social Value UK are proud to announce that our member, Lauren SeBlonka, has achieved Level One Associate Practitioner status.
Ahead of this announcement, we had a discussion about our Practitioner Pathway and Lauren’s experience with the Level One assessment process:
Why have you decided to undertake the Social Value International Practitioner Pathway?
I decided to undertake the Social Value International Practitioner Pathway to better enable me to understand, measure, manage and optimise the creation of positive social impact. This is important as I am currently undertaking a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project between Routes To Work and the University of the West of Scotland that aims to create a Social Value Evaluation Framework to better understand the impact of employability and skills interventions.
Routes to Work is a non-profit organisation that exists to help North Lanarkshire’s residents achieve their aims in life by providing sector-leading skills and employability support. In doing so, we contribute to improving the economy of North Lanarkshire, to reducing poverty and to creating a society where everyone has a good quality of life. Since opening our doors in 2002, Routes To Work have transformed over 21,000 lives by moving individuals into employment
What did you learn and find useful from this assessment process?
I found the assessment process incredibly useful for building upon the knowledge I gained during my Social Value and SROI training, ensuring I understand the theory and principles that underpin social value evaluation.
Now that you are a Level 1 Associate Practitioner what do you plan to do next to develop your practice? How do you plan to use your practitioner skills?
Now that I am a Level 1 Associate Practitioner, I am incredibly excited to start sharing best practice in social value analysis and apply my learnings to my role. I plan to use my practitioner skills to shine a light on the value of stakeholders’ voices, whilst developing myself and other members of staff at my organisation in social value evaluation. By becoming an accredited practitioner, I have been able to develop my practice through the creation and embedding of a framework for evaluating social value at an organisational level at Routes To Work.
You have now joined a community of practice around the globe. What does this mean to you and why do you want to participate and contribute to the development of the methodology and overall social value movement?
Being a part of such a passionate, dedicated and diverse global community of social value practitioners is incredibly meaningful to me. This will not only help my ambition to reduce inequalities and create a fairer world, but it also means our work towards measuring social value can influence and further develop methodologies locally, nationally and globally.
“I’m delighted to join the incredible community of Social Value International practitioners as a Level 1 Associate Practitioner. The journey to Associate Practitioner status has enabled me to contribute to the global movement towards a wider understanding of value, whilst sharing social value practice at a local level within Routes To Work and the North Lanarkshire area.” – Lauren SeBlonka, Business Improvement Partner at Routes to Work
Posted 12th August 2022