Ealing Community Transport (ECT) has been named as the winner of a national competition celebrating the impact of social enterprises on their communities and wider society.
The Making a Mark competition, run by the international social enterprise accreditation authority Social Enterprise Mark CIC, made the announcement at a special reception this week at the CIC’s annual conference in Winchester.
The judging panel commended ECT on its ability to demonstrate considerable social impact across a wide range of individuals and community groups, both directly and indirectly, by providing accessible and affordable transport for people and groups who cannot access mainstream services.
In the last year, ECT Charity has enabled more than 98,000 passenger trips for individuals and more than 60,000 group trips for over 400 community groups. The organisation has also been able to calculate its social impact using its recently developed methodology, and in the past year, ECT’s charitable activities have had a social value of £1.3 million. In the London Borough of Ealing alone, community transport could save up to £4.1 million annually by reducing isolation and loneliness.
ECT was the clear winner of the competition, whose nominees included several well-known social enterprises including The Big Issue. ECT gained 64% of all public votes, which accounted for 50% of the final result, with the other 50% being decided by the independent Certification Panel.
Anna Whitty, Chief Executive of ECT, said: “We are thrilled to have been named as the winners of this year’s Making a Mark competition for our continued work to measure our social impact. We are committed to providing high quality, safe, friendly, accessible and affordable transport in local communities, so it’s really important that we can measure how well we are achieving these aims and what difference it makes. We are incredibly proud of these achievements and would like to thank Social Enterprise Mark CIC for their recognition of our work in this award.”
Lucy Findlay, Managing Director of Social Enterprise Mark CIC said: “ECT won because of their ability to demonstrate their social impact across a wide range of groups, including helping overcome social isolation. They clearly demonstrate social impact created for individuals using the transport, as well as contributing to the sustainability of local community groups. Well done to Anna and the whole ECT team.”
To find out more, please read Social Enterprise Mark CIC’s press release on ECT’s win here.
