Building resilient island communities: harnessing social value for sustainable investment

Islands are small, unique, and often overlooked. They face unique challenges that are not always understood by more centrally based governments and organosations.

This webinar will explore how islands can utilise and maximise social value to improve the resilience of their communities.

Join us for a collaborative learning experience that will cover:

• Ways to address the unique challenges that islands face, now and in the (not too distant) future
• Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) and its significance for social value assessment
• Understanding and increasing social return on investment (SROI) with the Social Value Engine
• Best practices for creating partnerships and collaboration, using the lessons learned and a case study from North Ronaldsay

Agenda:

1. Understanding resilience in island communities – Anna Whelan, Burton Whelan/Rose Regeneration
2. Valuing the invaluable: the importance of transparent social value and outcome sharing across the island community ecosystem, with a demo of the Social Value Engine – Maddie Kortenaar, Social Value Engine
3. Case study: North Ronaldsay – North Ronaldsay Trust/L & L Fraser Ltd
   
4. Case study: North Harris - Rangers service
5. Getting started with social value – developing proxies and outcomes that matter – Luke Fraser, North Ronaldsay Trust/L & L Fraser Ltd
6. Interactive Q&A session

Speakers:

Anna Whelan, Burton Whelan/Rose Regeneration

Anna Whelan is a strategist with a particular interest in island matters. She works in the higher education, government and non-profit sectors, most recently for Orkney Islands Council, Rose Regeneration and the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU). Anna is supporting the Social Value Engine to explore potential new directions for future development.


Luke Fraser, North Ronaldsay Trust/L & L Fraser Ltd

Luke’s background ranges across the public, private and third sectors. He spent 16 years at Orkney Islands Council where he managed the Council’s house build programme, housing needs analysis and demographic forecasting work, the empty homes programme, and private sector energy efficiency grant and fuel poverty programmes.

Luke currently works for the North Ronaldsay Trust as the island’s Community Development Manager leading on community development activities and as a Senior Consultant at Aquatera. He is also the Managing Director of L & L Fraser Ltd, a small consultancy specialising in supporting communities develop affordable housing and other community led capital projects in Orkney, Shetland and increasingly elsewhere in Scotland.

Luke sits on the boards of the Scottish Islands Federation and Rural Housing Scotland.

Maddie Kortenaar, Social Value Engine

Maddie Kortenaar is the marketing director of the Social Value Engine, a digital platform co-created with East Riding of Yorkshire Council to measure and evidence social value. Prior to joining the Social Value Engine, she successfully supported an Isle of Skye-based startup in growing its footprint in the healthcare sector by building out an ecosystem with charities and NHS. As an accredited Social Value practitioner, Maddie takes a keen interest in social value and the importance of local investment. 

Fañch Bihan-Gallic, The North Harris Trust

Fañch Bihan-Gallic is Maor-dùthcha na Hearadh (North Harris Ranger) for Urras Ceann a Tuath na Hearadh (North Harris Trust), which manages the biggest community-owned estate in Scotland. Fañch’s job is strongly tied to the Gaelic concept of dùthchas, meaning that his role touches both upon culture and the environment. Apart from estate maintenance and visitor management, the North Harris Ranger Service works to support and maintain Gaelic culture and language as the indigenous way to connect to the land in Na h-Eileanan Siar.