Celebrating the Power of Business Collaboration in County Durham.
Creating A Legacy. Kindly sponsored by BAM
This exclusive, invite-only event (Sept 25) brought together valued Partners, Supporters, associates, and allies of the County Durham Pound – a collaborative movement driving social value through strong partnerships between the public, private, and VCSE sectors. Together, we reflected on the progress we’ve made and look ahead to how we can continue to set the gold standard in social value.
As well as a celebration of all the positive impact our Partners and Supporters have delivered, one of the main goals of the day was to plot our course as to what the next steps on our social value would be.
The day started with an inspiring speech from Alan Smith, Chief Executive of believe housing, a County Durham “lad” whose passion for the region was evident by how active believe are in instilling a social value, work based approach.
We were delighted to welcome two keynote speakers from BAM, both Nicole Komzolik-Nawn and Ryan Wilson took to the stage to update us on the BAM Community fund.
A newly launched County Durham initiative where community groups, charities and sports groups can apply for a range of grants from £5,000 to £20,000 to help support their plans. Inspired by the work BAM are carrying out on the construction of the new St. Leonard’s school in Durham City Centre.
Our panel tackled a range of challenging questions and conundrums on topical issues surrounding delivering social value. The debate made its way through discussing how charities, public bodies and private companies can better collaborate to deliver transformational social value, if the current procurement and funding models are helping or hindering and what kind of leadership and culture is needed to embed transformational social value across an organisation.
Each of the panel were also asked to give an example that was symbolic of social value becoming truly impactful and not just a tick box exercise. The discussion finished on a positive note as we looked at some of the digital tools and data which can be used to enhance, rather than replace human centred social value delivery.
Whilst there were many standout moments of the day, worthy of a standalone mention was the session delivered by Luke Joseph, Inclusion and Voice Practitioner at Durham County Council.
Luke shared with employers in the room what a valuable addition young people from a care background can be and not to overlook them in the recruitment process. Breaking barriers and stereotypes Luke championed how young people from a cared for background have a lot to add in terms of resilience and knowledge.
Luke referred to what he called the invisible cloak care leavers sometimes wear but for this not to be a deterrent for overlooking their potential.
The day was a celebration of the £1billion social value contribution delivered by County Durham Pound to the local economy. We celebrated some of the deliverables in terms of value of jobs created, apprenticeship delivered and revenue generated.
However more importantly we rejoiced in the people behind the projects and the communities they had supported. Discover more in our news (link).
