Name: How your small business can make a big social impact
Uploaded: 2024-02-21T17:35:51.438Z
Duration: 202.56
Description: February 20th marks World Day of Social Justice, where we are urged to play our part in creating a fairer world. But what does social justice actually mean, how can SMEs create social impact, and how should they to begin? Esther Foreman, CEO of the Social Change Agency, gets straight to the point.

STTP- Social Justice_FINAL.mp4

STTP- Social Justice_FINAL.vtt

English

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I'm Esther Foreman.

{{00:00:01}}
I'm the Chief Exec of the Social Change Agency and the Social Change Nest.

{{00:00:04}}
We provide support and help to businesses, organisations, groups, community groups,
local authorities and government who want to create social impact where they work.

{{00:00:13}}
You might have seen that it was World Day of Social Justice this week.

{{00:00:16}}
What does that mean for you and your business?

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Let's get straight to the point.

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Social justice doesn't actually have one defined term, but it generally refers to sort of equal
distribution of power, money, resources, equity decision making economic welfare, and so on.

{{00:00:38}}
It's really interesting when thinking about the role and
the relationship between social justice and social impact.

{{00:00:43}}
You can't have one without the other.

{{00:00:45}}
They're inevitable kind of bedfellows.

{{00:00:48}}
If you think about reforming your work and your programs and your relationships, so everything you
do will strive towards social justice, you're inevitably going to end up creating impact as you go.

{{00:01:00}}
If impact is not being created, You haven't got your social justice right.

{{00:01:04}}
Social impact is not just a volunteering program.

{{00:01:07}}
It's really looking at how you operate entirely from how you treat your staff, your board
papers, your governance, all the way to through to your supply chains, your clients, the

{{00:01:17}}
impact of where you work on the community around you is looking at what resources you have.

{{00:01:22}}
How can you use them effectively?

{{00:01:23}}
How can you make sure it's not just uphold social justice
and social impact, but how to ensure that you don't do harm.

{{00:01:34}}
If you're a small business, this can be really, really, really challenging
because you've got a little amount, you've got a small amount of resources.

{{00:01:41}}
You've got a very tight schedule often, but actually small actions can have huge, huge, huge impact.

{{00:01:48}}
These really big global shifts around the environmental movement, around social
justice, around the cost of living, they aren't going to go away anytime soon.

{{00:01:58}}
And whilst they are huge, small businesses and organisations are not powerless in the face of them.

{{00:02:04}}
Small actions can have massive ... can have a massive impact, and
it's the role and duty of every SME and organisation to take part.

{{00:02:12}}
In the UK, recent research from the Civic Power Fund showed that
only 9 percent of all grant funding went to social justice causes.

{{00:02:20}}
If you think about that in the context of the wider world, it's
everyone's responsibility to contribute to make a positive impact.

{{00:02:26}}
It's ESG for a reason.

{{00:02:28}}
The S actually underpins both the environmental and the governance part of your work.

{{00:02:34}}
These things are intersectional issues.

{{00:02:36}}
If the S is an uphold, the environmental bit goes wonky.

{{00:02:39}}
If the G is an uphold, the environmental and the social bit goes wonky.

{{00:02:43}}
If you focus on the S, you focus on doing it correctly, the E and the G should fall out of it.

{{00:02:47}}
This journey is a really important and crucial one, no matter what size of your organization.

{{00:02:52}}
There are some places that exist you can go to for help.

{{00:02:54}}
Our organization, the Social Change Agency.

{{00:02:57}}
would be one example.

{{00:02:58}}
We can come in and help you think through your values, think through what
kind of impact you want to make your employees and the wider community.

{{00:03:06}}
We can help you think through your strategy, implement it and activate it.

{{00:03:10}}
And there are other organizations such as B Corp that
you can go to for help and support with other networks.

I'm the Chief Exec of the Social Change Agency and the Social Change Nest.

We provide support and help to businesses, organisations, groups, community groups,
local authorities and government who want to create social impact where they work.

You might have seen that it was World Day of Social Justice this week.

What does that mean for you and your business?

Social justice doesn't actually have one defined term, but it generally refers to sort of equal
distribution of power, money, resources, equity decision making economic welfare, and so on.

It's really interesting when thinking about the role and
the relationship between social justice and social impact.

If you think about reforming your work and your programs and your relationships, so everything you
do will strive towards social justice, you're inevitably going to end up creating impact as you go.

If impact is not being created, You haven't got your social justice right.

Social impact is not just a volunteering program.

It's really looking at how you operate entirely from how you treat your staff, your board
papers, your governance, all the way to through to your supply chains, your clients, the

impact of where you work on the community around you is looking at what resources you have.

How can you make sure it's not just uphold social justice
and social impact, but how to ensure that you don't do harm.

If you're a small business, this can be really, really, really challenging
because you've got a little amount, you've got a small amount of resources.

You've got a very tight schedule often, but actually small actions can have huge, huge, huge impact.

These really big global shifts around the environmental movement, around social
justice, around the cost of living, they aren't going to go away anytime soon.

And whilst they are huge, small businesses and organisations are not powerless in the face of them.

Small actions can have massive ... can have a massive impact, and
it's the role and duty of every SME and organisation to take part.

In the UK, recent research from the Civic Power Fund showed that
only 9 percent of all grant funding went to social justice causes.

If you think about that in the context of the wider world, it's
everyone's responsibility to contribute to make a positive impact.

The S actually underpins both the environmental and the governance part of your work.

If the S is an uphold, the environmental bit goes wonky.

If the G is an uphold, the environmental and the social bit goes wonky.

If you focus on the S, you focus on doing it correctly, the E and the G should fall out of it.

This journey is a really important and crucial one, no matter what size of your organization.

There are some places that exist you can go to for help.

Our organization, the Social Change Agency.

We can come in and help you think through your values, think through what
kind of impact you want to make your employees and the wider community.

We can help you think through your strategy, implement it and activate it.

And there are other organizations such as B Corp that
you can go to for help and support with other networks.

Straight to the point

Best Practice

February 20th marks World Day of Social Justice, where we are urged to play our part in creating a fairer world. But what does social justice actually mean, how can SMEs create social impact, and how should they to begin?
Esther Foreman, CEO of the Social Change Agency, gets straight to the point.