Firstport

Day

Tuesday 7 November

Time slot

11:00-12:00

This event took place 12 months ago

Room

Pentland auditorium
Wheelchair accessible

Contact

Carmen Paputa-Dutu

Topics

Environment Funding & fundraising

Overall aim

• Highlight the importance of social innovation and social enterprise in addressing complex, deep-rooted challenges
• Share learning from the 2022 and 2023 Social Innovation Challenge winners
• Start the conversations around what the theme of the 2024 edition should be

Description

Every year, the Social Innovation Challenge funds and supports innovators to kick-start solutions that tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Managed by Firstport, Scotland's agency for start-up social entrepreneurs, on behalf of the Scottish Government, the programme is centred around a different theme each year. The winner of each edition is awarded £50,000 and a bespoke package of support to help them launch and implement their solution.

Join us for this motivating session to hear more from the winners of the most recent two editions:

• 2022 – Climate change challenges faced by rural communities in Scotland: The Iona Heat Network is a community-led project which aims to decarbonise the heat supply on the island of Iona, alleviating fuel poverty and helping residents move away from fossil fuels.
• 2023 - Addressing the rising cost of living: ApparelXchange is a social enterprise dedicated to reusing, repairing and recycling childrenswear that will aim to create a clothing system for the city of Glasgow, with a shared wardrobe to reduce the financial burden on families and the carbon impact of clothing on the environment. 

During this session, you will learn more about the drivers behind these innovative social enterprises, their vision for the future, the challenges that they have overcome and key pieces of advice for social entrepreneurs looking to make big impact in the world. The presentations will be followed by an interactive Q&A session.

As each edition is built on research and public engagement, at the end of the session, there will be an opportunity to feed into the 2024 theme of the Social Innovation Challenge through a hands-on voting exercise.

Who was the event aimed at?

Public

Who spoke at this event?

Facilitator:
Carmen Paputa-Dutu, Social Innovation Challenge Programme Manager at Firstport

Speakers:
Shiona Ruhemann, Iona Heat Network Project Lead at Iona Energy Ltd
Izzie Eriksen, Founding Director at ApparelXchange CIC