Posted 12th July 2023
We are pleased to welcome Enterprise North West to the Social Value UK movement.
Below follows a catch up with Brian O’Neil (Director of Development & Enterprise) and why the Northern Ireland-based social enterprise have decided to join SVUK.
Tell us about your organisation:
Enterprise North West is passionate about encouraging economic resilience in Derry City and beyond. We strive to help our clients achieve this through stimulating enterprise and innovation.
Enterprise North West focus on growing the local economy by providing the information, advice and support that local business owners and social enterprises need.
Enterprise North West are passionate about contributing to the local economy through our range of services for businesses and social enterprises to create community wealth.
Why have you joined SVUK? What do you hope to achieve and what training or tools we offer are you most excited by?
We have decided to join SVUK as they are recognised as the market leaders in terms of social value in the UK. We want to be able to support organisations and social enterprises across the island of Ireland to measure the true impact of the services they provide in their communities.
How deep is your current knowledge of social value practice?
Whilst Enterprise North West have worked in the social enterprise sector for over 25 years we have always focused on business development with financial return as the key focus. Our current knowledge of social value is limited but we are keen to develop this knowledge further.
You have joined a global social value movement, what does this mean to you? How important do you think it is that organisations make decisions informed by their social impacts?
Enterprise North West are fully committed to supporting local organisations measure the full impact of their services to allow them to demonstrate this to their own social stakeholders. This type of reporting is now becoming more important in terms of supporting community wealth building parties in local communities.
We cannot wait to see our new member embark on their social value journey. If you’d like to start yours, become a member today and consider attending our online or in-person SROI training. The Social Return on Investment framework is an internationally-celebrated method for identifying positive and negative outcomes of organisations’ decisions.