
“ACE IT asked The Impact People to carry out a Social Return on Investment (SROI) study of its Moose in the Hoose Project. The objective of the study was to better understand the social value that is created by the Moose in the Hoose Project. In particular, the focus of the study was on the residential care home based digital learning activities provided by the Project within the city of Edinburgh.” – (aceit.org.uk/downloads/SROIcasestudy.doc)
Background – Moose in the Hoose Project
The Moose in the Hoose Project has a well deserved reputation for innovation and quality of the delivery of advice, guidance, learning and support in digital technology services to volunteers who in turn deliver the service to older people living with residential care homes with Edinburgh. The Project has won numerous awards for its work and undoubtedly provides value for money. However, until this SROI study was undertaken, ACE IT had been unable to quantify the social impact of the Project.
Moose in the Hoose Project – Theory of Change
This case study demonstrates that the Moose in the Hoose Project creates significant social and economic value for the elderly residents of the city of Edinburgh. Moose in the Hoose Project aims to improve the lives of older people living within residential care homes across Edinburgh. The Project does this through recruiting volunteers to work directly with older people living within residential care homes by introducing them to computers and information technology in a non-threatening, informal hands on approach. By allowing the elderly to suggest possible usage, the aim is to improve their mental and physical well being by keeping them stimulated at the same time leveraging the ubiquitous reach afforded by information technology to enable them to keep in touch with friends and family. By offering older people learning and development opportunities within their residential care home the Project is able to provide additional support and care.
Strong Impact
To conduct the study, they first identified the relevant stake holders and used activities like:
- one – on – one interviews
- Telephone interviews
- questionnaires
- online surveys
The various stakeholders are
- The service users
- Friends and family of the Moose in the Hoose service’s users
- Moose in the Hoose volunteers
- The paid staff etc.
While the calculations are based onprojections, they have take into consideration the ‘longevity’ of the changes.Accordingly, some changes (in the target audience) will last longer than others. They have estimated ‘3’ years for the long lived effects and have thus, calculated the impact.
ACE IT have an SROI (Social Return on Investment) ratio of 8.13, this means that the social return is worth 8 GBP (17.06AUD) to every 1 GBP (2.13 AUD) spent.
It is quite apparent that this project will create value. As the ‘trailblazers’ the success of the Moose in the Hoose project will lead to sustainable projects like this in the future. Its quite a
pparent that as human beings live longer lives, the care of the elderly will be an essential need and project’s like ‘Moose in the Hoose’ are showing us that it is possible to do ‘good’ in the world and still grow.