Social value is all about people. It’s changing lives and improving the health, wellbeing, and satisfaction of individuals and communities. It’s ensuring our planet continues to prosper for generations to come. But you can’t expect to have the greatest impact on people without hearing from those you hope to help.
Long-term change doesn’t happen in isolation. You can’t improve a community from within a boardroom. It’s the opinions, perspectives, and experiences of real-life people that allow you to penetrate deeper into core societal issues.
Trust us, taking the extra time and resources to liaise with local communities is worth it. And today, we want to show you why. So, with that in mind, here are four ways that prioritising community engagement will pay dividends for your social value.
Build better services
Community engagement is a powerful resource when it comes to designing and implementing services. Sure, you can make an educated guess about what a local community needs most. But nothing will compare to hearing feedback from the people you’re actually trying to help.
Significant change shouldn’t happen in a vacuum.
And community engagement brings the people you’re trying to help into the centre of the conversation. It allows real people to shape the initiatives that will impact them every day. It gives them a say in the future of the community they’re a part of.
Engage with your local community regularly and build a full understanding of the ways you can give back. What do they need? And going further, what do they want? What are their aspirations for the future? How can you not only make people feel safer and healthier, but also empower them to achieve more in their lifetime? These answers will be invaluable when it comes to broadening your impact.
Gather feedback to improve
It would be great if every single initiative you developed went exactly to plan. But, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Luckily, ongoing community engagement allows you to continually refine and improve your services.
By capturing feedback on a regular basis, you will recognise quicker if an intervention or service is underperforming. And rather than wasting endless time and resources blindly trying to make it work, you can hear directly from beneficiaries about why it’s not working and what could be improved.
For example, you might decide to host seminars in a local community centre to offer advice about the cost-of-living crisis. However, the majority of local residents aren’t able to carve out time in their days to attend in-person, so attendance figures are alarmingly low. With community engagement, you can work with residents to tweak your efforts and ensure the maximum possible value is generated. You might pivot the seminars to be online, or provide a downloadable resource that can be read in their own time.
This way, you ensure the best use of your time and resources. And can take all of the guesswork out of improving your approach.
Stronger reporting
Engaging with local people will provide powerful stories and feedback to include in your social value reports. Rather than relying on cold, intangible statistics, you can weave impactful qualitative data to tell the bigger picture of how your actions have changed real lives for the better.
Quantitative data shares the outcomes of your actions. But qualitative data captured directly from beneficiaries helps you share how you’ve made them feel. And that can be incredibly powerful, whether your reports are for staff, investors, customers, or the general public.
Generate even more social value
Giving local residents a say in the development of their local community is a form of social value in and of itself. It empowers residents to take control of their own future, that of their loved ones, and the community they call home. And the optimism that comes with feeling heard, seen, and valued can also trickle down into all other aspects of their lives.
There’s a large amount of social value that could be unlocked, simply by opening a few extra channels of communication.
The local communities in which you operate are at the heart of your organisation’s social value. They’re the reason you’re fighting for a stronger society, improved way of life, and a prosperous planet. So what better people to turn to during the development, implementation, and improvement of your services and initiatives?
Impact simplifies and streamlines the entire social value process. And with intelligent survey functionality, it’s never been easier to engage with local communities and make an even bigger difference. To find out more, schedule a demo or get in touch with the team on 0161 532 4752.