Branching out - Higlands and Islands Enterprise reports on social impact pledge progress

Higlands and Islands Enterprise’s (HIE) first Social Impact Pledge included placing graduate volunteers in a local social enterprise to support young people. In this short case study, HIE describes how the initiative has led to benefits for the volunteers as well as wider social impact for young people.

One of the commitments enshrined within HIE’s first Social Impact Pledge, in 2016, focused specifically on young people by challenging the agency’s graduate placements to operate as a group to support a local social enterprise.

The graduates worked on a volunteering project with the Abriachan Forest Trust, a local social enterprise which supports skills development for vulnerable young people. Following the success of this project, we have continued this as an integral part of the programme for our current tranche of graduates, who are working with another social enterprise during their time with us.

Positive feedback from the Trust confirmed that volunteering initiatives such as this provide a good opportunity for the graduates to work on a joint project that will contribute to their on-going development and team working abilities, as well as demonstrating HIE’s commitment towards social impact within the local community.

HIE’s young people recently promoted the benefits of volunteering to all staff via a webinar, which was very well received by all those staff who joined it.

More information

Click here to see HIE's 2020 pledge