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SunnyRush Community Workshop

The SunnyRush Community Workshop – A Platform for Rush-weaving Enthusiasts project was proposed by Yi-Ya Liao, a member of the SunnyRush team, to be part of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB)’s Rural-Young Project. The use of rushes was the main focus of the SunnyRush project, the implementation of which covered five major areas: product development, brand management, environmentally-friendly farming, documenting weaving methods, and education.

This study adopts the SROI methodology to review the social impact of the SunnyRush Community Workshop – A Platform for Rush-weaving Enthusiasts project for the period August 1, 2016 to August 31, 2018 from the perspective of stakeholders. After meeting with stakeholders, it was found that the main impact of the project lay in its ability to attract the younger and the middle-aged generations and get them to learn rush-weaving, to cultivate rush-weaving instructors; and by compiling weaving methods in a systematic and graphical way, helping more people to become aware in an easy-to-understand way of a craft that has been passed down for more than 200 years. In addition, the project combined culture with creativity to enhance the value of the rush industry and to stimulate the local economy and create employment opportunities.

A comprehensive survey and analysis of this study shows that the SunnyRush Community Workshop – A Platform for Rush-weaving Enthusiasts project has created the equivalent of NT$2.40 in social value for every NT$1 invested. The sensitivity analysis placed the result between NT$1.55 and NT$16.37. We also discussed the result and the stakeholder feedback received during the process of the study with the SunnyRush team and SWCB, the agency that subsidized the project, in order to look for ways to improve and optimize the project. This was intended to allow adjustments and corrections whenever needed during the implementation process, and to maximize the project’s impact, social value, and benefits.