The learning exchange was an opportunity to stop, think and reflect on our organisations future purpose and model. We are a very busy charity that has existed for 25 years and are going through an important phase of our development. It is very rare that our staff, volunteers and board get together. Day 1 are a leading social enterprise that have successfully managed to move away from sole reliance on grant funding. They deliver a range of youth work and outreach projects through income generated by the kart raceway. Their green credentials are of real interest as they generate power for their electric go-karts and deliver on their sustainability policy.

We had the opportunity to learn from the Day 1 team and apply this to the future of our organisation. We are keen to generate more income to help move away from grant funding, grow our impact in our community and improve our sustainability. There were opportunities for learning both ways and this visit also fostered stronger relationships between our organisations for the future.

Learning Outcomes

• Social enterprise model
  Learning about the history of Day 1, the why and the idea to develop a kart raceway.
  How it works to generate income towards youth initiatives and how this impact is measured. Understanding the opportunities and challenges with running more of a commercial operation compared to working in the grant funding landscape.
• The why – youth work
  Looking at the purpose of the organisation and the roll out of successful youth projects including employment, apprenticeships and developing key life skills for young people within the local community.
• Sustainability
  Understanding the transition towards electric karts inc managing change. Discussing wider sustainability within the organisation inc the policy and practical measures such as Solar PV and making better use of local resources.

"On reflection, our trip was a valuable learning experience for all of those who took part. It was interesting to listen to their story and growth from a small charity into a prosperous social enterprise. It also reinforced that we are on the right path with our ethos, approach and future aspirations."

Five Inspiralba graduate apprentices from different areas around Argyll and Bute headed up to Edinburgh to for a Community Learning Exchange, where we first visited Social Enterprise Scotland and then the Edinburgh Remakery. Each of us now works for a social enterprise in our area and so getting an opportunity to learn how other social enterprises and intermediaries  support each other and make an impact provided lots of transferrable knowledge.

Edinburgh Remakery provides training opportunities through work placements, volunteering chances and apprenticeships. They were able to create chances for those facing barriers to employment and help them build real life working skills and raise people’s confidence who may not be in a position yet to jump into full time employment. They run free workshops for members in their wider community. These workshops could be for repairing, upgrading or maintaining their laptops and there is also a free sewing workshop. Both of these workshops prevent people from disposing of their technology or clothing as they are learning on how to give their items a second life. They collect all technology to be recycled via an electric van and use the van to send out orders that were purchased in the surrounding areas of Leith. To send out orders they try to avoid using plastic wrapping and use cardboard filling in their boxes rather than bubble wrap.

We learned they aren’t scared to trial new things as they are aware of the changing environment and that to measure outcomes the board monitor the finances on a monthly basis, do surveys and do reports on CO2. Through this experience Inspiralba now purchase laptops for clients who are on the employability programme from the Remakery.

Learning about the different efforts ‘Social Enterprise Scotland’ (SES) put into promoting diversity and providing information for social enterprises throughout Scotland was very interesting to hear. The Rural SE Hub was awesome to hear about, since providing information in a central place online – especially to those living and working in remote areas – is an invaluable resource for everyone working in a social enterprise.

One of the consistent points throughout was that social enterprises seem to keep staff numbers relatively low. Wages are a huge cost for any organisation, the potential concept of the ‘Shared Services Model’ discussed at SES was very useful. This idea revolved around the idea of smaller enterprises employing one person who works across multiple organisations to provide for each of them – thus potentially reducing staff costs, but also potentially improving networking and promoting collaboration as well. Whilst there would be legality and confidentiality issues related to this, it is this line of thinking – trying to change how we perceive job roles and building a more sustainable business model – that makes the social enterprise model appealing for continuing to search and innovate new ways to run businesses.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the Social Enterprise Model:-Gain a comprehensive understanding of the social enterprise model, including its mission, vision, and unique value proposition.
  -Explore the social impact framework and how it aligns with organizational goals.
• Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI):-Understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in social enterprises and explore strategies for promoting a more inclusive organisational culture- Learn about best practices for engaging diverse communities and ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities.
• Evaluate Impact and Sustainability: -Develop skills in monitoring and evaluating social impact by learning how to define measurable outcomes, collect relevant data, and assess program effectiveness -Explore strategies for scaling impact and ensuring the long-term sustainability of social enterprise initiatives.

"We consider ourselves very flexible as often our income can be dependent on grants that are available on any given year. This was not the case with the Edinburgh Remakery. Their mission statement of tackling loneliness & digital poverty does not change to meet funder’s projects, which I found surprising but understandable. Social Enterprises are founded with objectives and goals in mind to improve our lives from a sustainable aspect (improving environment, economy and social). It makes sense to stick to those principles, regardless of how funding can provide extra income at the cost of changing business direction. Not all social enterprises have that luxury to ignore or reject government grants and still be sustainable, but it was nice to hear that some SE businesses can still thrive with their initial aims and objectives at heart."

SCOTO is a rapidly growing network seeking to grow, develop and raise awareness of community led tourism and secure added value from tourism for Scotland’s people and places. Community Led Tourism in the 3rd sector is a about visitor facing experiences which are delivered by the local community via social or other enterprise models which are not for profit and deliver social, economic and/or environmental benefits for the community.

This learning exchange offered networks the opportunity to identify which communities they are working with who are providing visitor services, facilities and experience and how those communities can develop, manage and promote their community as a destination.

The outcome was increased partnership opportunities between SCOTO and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland to measure impacts of events and festivals on local tourism and with Scottish Island Federation to share expertise on the impact of cruise ships in Orkney – how the community are shaping tourism around this on their terms.

Learning Outcomes

• To deliver positive impacts for people, places and planet: measuring impact – what difference is tourism making in communities?
• To prioritise the common and shared interests of visitors, businesses and residents – send of place and place branding for locals and the host community.
• To deliver enduring benefits for the whole community beyond the more limited short term interests of the tourism and hospitality industry – things that matter to our communities in place planning and action planning to recalibrate tourism.

"Responsible tourism is a collaborative approach which places an onus on all tourism players to take responsibility for their actions. It seeks to protect our people, places and the planet by reducing negative impacts and ensuring as an absolute minimum they are no worse off. COMMUNITY LED TOURISM goes further. CLT seeks added value from all tourism players and activity ensuring our people and our places are better off as a consequence of tourism – and in a way that matters to that specific community."

The purpose was the development of an LGBTQ+ SE supplier chain and support the development of partnership working.

Learning Outcomes

• Peer learning and partnership working
• Connection to the SE sector- for LGBTQ+ SEs to build relationships with support organisations to encourage more LGBTQ+ SEs to be part of the sector.
• To develop an LGBTQ+ Community Network which meet regularly to skill share and mentor new organisations joining the sector.

“This exchange has helped inform our direction of travel by highlighting what people need in terms of support- such as developing an informal mentoring programme and the establishment of a formal LGBTQ+ SE leadership course.”