The Journey of Hope: Transitioning from Research to Real-World Impact

Gabriela Matouskova from Hope for the Community shares her inspiring journey from the initial challenges of the pandemic to embracing technology for transformative community care. Through innovative partnerships and focus on measurement of impact, Hope for the Community has supported over 30,000 individuals, navigating the delicate balance of emotional and social support alongside practical solutions.

• Gabriela's unexpected journey into social enterprise 
• The role of technology in overcoming pandemic challenges 
• Growth of digital services supporting long-term conditions 
• Importance of collaborative partnerships in community outreach 
• Emphasis on measuring impact and user experience 
• Future plans focused on technology integration and sustainability 
• Call to action for organisations seeking to innovate responsibly

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Chapters

• 0:02 Social Enterprise Impact and Growth
• 14:59 Maximizing Impact Through Data Analysis
• 28:07 Looking Forward
• 37:10 Impact Measurement and Communication Services

Transcript

Heidi: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Make an Impact podcast. This week I'm joined by Gabriela from Hope for the Community, and I am so delighted to finally get Gabriela onto the podcast because I've known her for a number of years. Gabriela, do you just want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you?

Gabriela: 0:20

Thank you, heidi. So my name is Gabriela Matouskova. I'm the CEO of Hope for the Community. We're a social enterprise based in Coventry providing self-management for people with long-term conditions and carers.

Heidi: 0:32

Thank you. So can I ask you as a first off to get us into the conversation, is how did you end up working for Hope for the Community?

Gabriela: 0:43

I fell into social enterprise slightly by accident. I discovered social enterprises about six, seven years ago, working at a university supporting people to set up social enterprises, and discover, oh, there's a different way to do business, there's a way to use business as a force for good, and saw their passion and how rewarding. And, of course, the other side of it is where towering the work was, and whilst I was sort of working with them to help them think about either the business models or the way that could work, I always felt like I wanted to be on the side of it. Eventually, I wanted to feel that that making a difference element, that making an impact part, and so five years ago, I had a half an hour meeting with Karen Lynch, a former CEO of Blue Water, and told her all about this wonderful company and what it could do.

Gabriela: 1:37

And it was all volunteer-led and somebody should do it and really a lot of doubt about whether it could or should be me. And and she simply said what's what's stopping you? And it sort of stuck in my head and I went back home handing my notice from my job. Three months later I found myself, found myself in hope in January 2020, so I sort of fell into it, but I don't think a day goes by when when I'm thinking that it you know when I'm not thinking that it was probably one of the best decisions I've made- Wow, it's such a lovely story how you say you just fell into it, as if it just sort of happened so naturally.

Heidi: 2:15

And I think that's one of the things once you find out about social enterprise, you don't want to go anywhere else, you don't want to look at anything else. You.

Gabriela: 2:24

No, no, absolutely not. Every business should be a social enterprise, don't we? We try to fly the flag, but, yeah, I think it's refreshing, when the doom and gloom of the news comes around, to actually know that what you're doing has got a purpose and it's giving back to the society and it's business. You know, I know, that we can't do any good if we aren't here. So, absolutely yeah, social enterprise all the way.

Heidi: 2:47

Definitely, and you're very modest about this because I know you're award winning and the fact that you joined Hope around 2020 is quite a significant milestone in most people's lives because of the pandemic. So what was it like at that point in time?

Gabriela: 3:09

Well, I think in January 2020, it was quite all right. It was quite naive, you know. I think at that time none of us knew, but because the programs we were providing were mainly run in community groups and in centres, so it's for people to come together and people who've got different types of long-term conditions, or people who look after children or adults, who are carers, to sort of help them focus on their health and wellbeing, and a lot of especially those unpaid carers were telling us that they couldn't come on a Wednesday between 10 and 2. And they were willing to try something online, something digitally. This is at a time where, you know I don't think anybody heard the word Zoom or Skype or you know any other, and that was the only thing that we knew. But then one of the ways we were going to see that the HOPE program and our organisation could work was digitally. So we were drawing apps with people who we supported. What would it look like, how would it work, how would the information flow, all sort of on a paper and then building it. At the time, we were trying to test our first online course or digital course with our friends. People who were previously on our multiple sclerosis course, came in to test it for us, and that was on 26th of March 2020, as like first pilot with friends, as we called it, and who knew that a couple of days later the whole country will come in, the UK, will come to lockdown, and and after that it was all of our partners who were delivering in-person programs asking what can you do digitally? And it sort of went from there.

Gabriela: 4:45

No, it wasn't easy, and I had a 10 year old at home to homeschool as well. You know the nice weather worked, but you know there's only as much as you can do with a laptop in the garden, with somebody diving into a paddling pool and trying to entertain them. But yeah, no, it definitely wasn't easy. People felt vulnerable at home there. There was a lot of uncertainty, offering people some possibility of connection, and especially for those people who were feeling extra vulnerable, those ones who already had some pre-existing conditions, because it was really, I think, a tough time for a lot of us. That sense of losing the freedom, the sort of not knowing, was really hard, but, on the other other hand, it sort of allowed us to invest the time and work with people to build the digital programs, build the platform, test it and people were really, really wonderful in terms of giving us feedback. You know, yes, it's great if it works, but we wanted to know what doesn't work so we could fix it.

Gabriela: 5:42

So it was a really tough time, I guess, the two years of us really pivoting completely what we were doing before and trying to translate that sort of friendship and camaraderie that happens in person, those relationships that build up into an online space with you know something, just through listening, and with some willing developers who can translate light vision into something that actually works. So, so, yeah, it wasn't easy at all, but it was. I guess that's the best way sometimes of building something is you have that agile approach, you're not afraid to change, rather than, I guess, if we just build the tech and thought people will use it. So I think that that collaboration, that co-design, was really important at that stage, which made it in parts, easier. But I think for me that time is slightly blurred with everything else that was going on.

Heidi: 6:41

To be honest, yeah, I think I definitely can relate to the blurring and blacking out of a lot of stuff around that time. My daughter was two at the time, so, yeah, it's not a time I look back on and think, oh, that was a wonderful time, it was very hard work. So, from there, back by nearly five years, how much has hope for the community grown in terms of what you're doing and the programmes that you're delivering?

Gabriela: 7:12

So I guess by the time we started we were really sort of starting from, you know, ground zero, no participants. On the digital platform we've had, together with our in-person program, supported over 30,000 people now, majority of them online, because the online did offer a lot of opportunities to connect people with rare conditions, who never met anybody and you know for whom a possibility of a community center in Coventry wouldn't be an option to traveling from Shetland Islands in Cornwall. But yeah, it has in terms of, obviously, the numbers of people that engage with our programmes, the number of partners we work with. So our model is a partnership model, so we're sort of in the background and we work with partners across the voluntary sector or the NHS to sort of tailor the programme to them, to design it in the pathway the way they want it to work.

Gabriela: 8:05

So you might not hear about us but you might hear about the Macmillan Cancer Support Hope Program or the NHS Hope Program or the Firefighters Charity Hope Program and that is really that shared ownership is fantastic because it offers that scalability and we were very lucky that we had people who came to a program during the pandemic and worked in the charity sector and said, well, we'd like it for our group and so it was that word of mouth sort of, you know, doing a lot with a little, but I guess, having the underpinning of the evidence-based programme that originated at Coventry University and then just using technology as a means of just reaching other groups of people and then obviously post the pandemic, returning back or trying to see how the in-person delivery can work alongside. But yeah, it's, it's the technology part we do. 90% of what we do is now digital and, as you sort of hinted in there, yes, in December we were very proud to have been named the Technology Social Enterprise of the Year by SEUK at the awards, which was a big surprise. Thank you, really nice.

Heidi: 9:13

Indeed, yeah, definitely, I did hint, I didn't want to actually say it. I was like Gabriela can announce that one herself, because it's her celebration and success. And I think for me, for me, the what. The thing I love about you getting that award is that, having known the organisation, when you are doing the in-person stuff, to now being mostly digital and using the tech in an amazing way, it's just, it's fascinating to see how rapidly that journey has gone, really.

Gabriela: 9:47

Yeah, absolutely, and I would say you know it is not really my award, it was a very much a collective effort Our team, the developers and our partners.

Gabriela: 9:56

You know, when you are faced with a diagnosis or you find yourself in a difficult situation, you want to trust the organisations that provide the support and through those partnerships we can be in the background and really work on the quality and the evidence base and the research around it and the feedback.

Gabriela: 10:14

And you know somebody doesn't like that. It pings and makes a sound. You know we listen and we switch it off or enable them to switch over. So we do those things, but it's those partners at the front who sort of recruit and onboard and signpost people that are really important. So that way we can be very small, but actually that model of being able to have those partnerships around the country and internationally actually is fantastic because it's you know we're good at that stuff, or you know we are quite good at that stuff around the tech and making sure it's person-led and person-centred. But it's our partners at the forefront who are sort of providing a lot more. So we're just part of their jigsaw puzzle, but without them I think that the support for people is would be quite limiting.

Heidi: 11:02

So it's, quite from my perspective, a very fortunate way of building partnerships and and running a business, because you don't feel like you have to do everything yeah, and I can imagine, with the waiting lists what they are, that there's a lot of organisations that need this and and a lot more people should be partnering with you to provide this, because most people are waiting six months, maybe a year longer for certain things. You know, with my hip, then the waiting list is nearly two years to get a new hip, so I definitely need to wait well.

Gabriela: 11:41

Absolutely, and that was obviously one of the programs that you know. Some of those programs are for conditions that are around and quite known and, by the way the program is structured, it can be a quick response to a need because the research behind is the evidence base behind the sort of whole person approach to well-being. It's not really focusing on the condition, it's focusing on the person. So when things like long covid started emerging, we brought people with long covid to us and really asked them what was not working, what was working where they were at, what would help them, and on the basis of that we launched probably one of our programs that had the biggest uptake in the shortest time and it's still needed now, despite the fact that obviously you know treatments, research, other things sort of still being developed. But the whole point is what we want to provide is that opportunity for people to come together and and sort of have that shared experience of going through something that is very difficult, but try to sort of work together to about things that you know, share tips and things that work the same with you know, like the waiting list for hip and knees.

Gabriela: 12:51

Absolutely.

Gabriela: 12:51

So you know we see a lot more people because they're waiting longer, there's more pain, there's less movement and actually with those sort of elective care type procedures, the best thing you can do is prepare yourself well for the surgery, because the work really starts after you had the surgery to make sure you regain the mobility that you had before, which is difficult when you're waiting a long time where the pain is getting worse.

Gabriela: 13:22

So again, looking at both the physical side of things but also the sort of emotional impact of those and we know with any chronic illness, the doctors and the system will try to treat and help, but it's the emotional impact of that side that we try to combine together. So that's where the differentiator in what we do. But yes, the waiting lists are tough. You know, waiting well and getting ready for surgery is actually much more important, and you know we can't bring the list down. But, like you said, we can help people wait better but also be better prepared and therefore have a quicker recovery time after the surgery. So I'm hoping, fingers crossed for you.

Heidi: 14:03

Obviously, my interest is all about measuring impact, so I'm interested to know how you measure the impact of your programs.

Gabriela: 14:12

And I think we've had these conversations before. So we spun out of research, or the program spun out of research at Coventry University and it was said by Professor Andy Turner and Wendy, tina, dave and Vicky, who were sort of volunteers who experienced the programme, set up the community interest company with the notion of, you know, they all lived with long-term conditions, wanted to help others. Now, with the professor and the research came a lot of data that is obviously important in research terms and, as we know, there's a difference in research terms, importance in the research terms importance and the real life importance, and your customer, you know data importance on those things. So for me it was always thinking about how much was enough, how much do we want to know what we're going to do with it. And I think that was your saying, wasn't it? It was and I'm because english is my second language always it's treasure what you measure.

Heidi: 15:13

Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes yes, yes, yes, yes.

Gabriela: 15:16

So obviously you know, don't overdo it, don't do too much, and I always felt like we, you know, been pulled in those elements of you know, for the research, you need to measure this and for the research, you need to measure this, and for the commissioners, you need to measure this.

Gabriela: 15:29

And then for what matters to people is something different than you've got to have feedback and it feels like it can be a very overwhelming experience. So I think, through the process of the five years, you know it's a big learning curve about understanding what is important to different people and making sure you don't overburden people by collecting data you don't use and don't put barriers in people and engaging in the program. So for me, we had the evidence-based published articles around improvements in well-being. That was always one of the sort of measures we introduce across everything sort of measures we introduce across everything. And that was interesting for us from the perspective, because there's enough research saying that your mental is it's how you engage in activities in your life, in your health care. That is sort of a measure we've put across all of our programs. So that links back to the in-person, the online and comparing whether the two actually have the same outcome. So we're always outcome focused, not really how many people come on the programme, but what difference does it make?

Gabriela: 16:31

And not only in the terms what improves, but also, you know, is there a potential that something doesn't go the right way? So I think quite important to sort of think about those adverse effects some of those, you know, health interventions can have, and I think that's very important because nothing works for everybody and nothing can be attributed to the one thing. But I think, through that process and through some of the work you and I did together as well, I think it started crystallising to me what. What is that importance of what we want? But I love data. You know the richness that that exists within it, the fact that you can, you know, understand people's attitudes to using digital and, and you know, maybe bringing down some of those narratives around. You know there's areas that people don't use digital and we actually find out that they are. That it's just, you know, it's a slightly different reason as to why they would not, and I think digital is here to stay. It's just how we build technologies in a way that they work for people and they're not cumbersome in terms of data. But yeah, so we have sort of an aspect of a routine, so we know what works. We collect continuous feedback, so we want people to engage on the platform in the programs as much as possible and then when we have an opportunity to partner with researchers and do some more in-depth research studies, for us that's also important because we are able to drill a bit deeper into certain areas.

Gabriela: 17:57

But I think that was a sort of a process that I think we had to go through to understand that the NHS doesn't always look for randomised control trial.

Gabriela: 18:07

You know full trial evidence that sometimes actually what we're doing is about cost avoidance, not necessarily return on investment. So how do you quantify that? So it's been a big learning curve for me, but I'm a big advocate that in order to really understand what you're doing, you've got to look at the data and you've got to interpret it and not just for fancy non-social impact reports really address those things where you make a change as a result of something that is working really well or isn't working or some things that you start seeing trends that you want to explore a bit more, mainly from the perspective of improving users experience. But also your customers need to feel they're getting good value for money. It is, and it's not one size fits all ever. I think every organisation has to find that for themselves. But I think you know in this day the the sort of passiveness of data we can see that you can find in ways that you know is transparent, so the participants know it is quite enlightening, I think in those parts.

Heidi: 19:12

Lovely. It's so nice to hear you talking about how you're using the data, because there are a lot of people out there that just collect data and they're like hoarders of data and don't do much with it, so it's really nice to hear that it's actually helping you to think and develop the experience for the customers and actually continually improve things, which is what it's really all about, isn't it?

Gabriela: 19:39

Absolutely. And then when you can look at the aspects of your day-to-day, like the work around social value, you can then actually look beyond as an organisation with your mission. There's a sort of project-based program, but then actually taking it that level higher up, as to what is it that we, through all this work, contributed to the society beyond, not just through what we do but actually who we are. I think that's that second element and you know, again, that's at first sort of a bit abstract to how you look at it.

Gabriela: 20:10

I think that's also important to sort of be true to the mission of being a social enterprise, so that you can communicate your impact as an organisation beyond just the work you do, but also you know who you employ, who you partner with, where you shop, where you buy your supplies, whatever it may be. But again, it's got to work for your organisation. You know you can't push yourself too far, but I think there's some you know fantastic organisations around that provide stuff in this space that you know when it comes to, you know, in my own Christmas shopping you always try to buy social, buy local, do sort of things, because I guess somehow it just gets ingrained in in us that we do it, we help others. They might buy from us, or whichever way it may be, but you know we're all jointly contributing definitely.

Heidi: 21:02

Do you think being a social enterprise and having that data about your social values helped you to to get more clients or to promote what you do better, or do you think it would have happened anyway?

Gabriela: 21:17

I think it does. But then I am quite vocal about that. We are a social enterprise. I know we have all these you you know often conversations about are we not-for-profit, are we for-profit? You know I will definitely say that if certain organisations offer not-for-profit discount for something, I will ask. So you know, put it out of the bag.

Gabriela: 21:37

But I think for me it is important that we are a social enterprise so we try to communicate that to our partners. Not all of them might be quite aware of things like social value and other things. So that's part of educating and if you get a sense it's, you know that it's sort of like you've got this name or a brand for yourself. That's where you fit in. But I think it's the values of the organisations that are more representative than whether just the fact that we're a social enterprise, I think is the values that we have as an organisation have certainly helped us find partners, find customers. Hopefully, you know, our participants see it. Hopefully, you know, our team feels they're working for an organisation that is value based and has that positive impact in society.

Gabriela: 22:25

You know I wished it would help us more to get business. I definitely would. But you know you can't just rely on that. It's sort of I would say, you know, when, when I like to, I always, I never not say we're not a social enterprise. But do understand, not everybody understands what that means. So, you know, always use the short course, sort of saying what we do with our profits, no shareholders, all that element. But for me, you know, I'm proud of it, so I do use it, whether it's face people or not, if they have or if they breathe and live the values of, yes, if we make a profit, we're reinvested and maybe offset, you know, a cheaper license to a smaller organisation who wants to use the program so they can have access to the evidence-based program the same way big organisations can.

Heidi: 23:16

So you know, I think it's, it's a win-win definitely, and the one thing that I've learned is as long as you've got the quality there, then the fact that you're a social enterprise and you deliver that added value and impact is a bonus and that will make the decision to work with you easier. But if your quality is rubbish, then the fact that you're a social enterprise is not going to make any difference at all the fact that you're a social enterprise is not going to make any difference at all.

Gabriela: 23:47

It's a business, isn't it?

Gabriela: 23:48

You know we want to buy stuff that is good or has good value, and I think that as you focus on your quality and your values, then the social enterprise element to it should help, maybe bring it over the line with some partners.

Gabriela: 24:03

And I guess you know, as a social enterprise it opens up different funding sources maybe that aren't there for the traditional companies or larger ones. So I quite like that flexibility of the business model being sort of a mixed income model, because we can work on research and go through research grants, we can work on delivery and be commissioned on a contract and look at tenders and we can look at grants. If we're, let's say, testing something new or trying something new, that maybe it's a bit more uh, it's a bit more risky or a bit more uh sort of you know, maybe, where we want to have deeper impact and what we work with organisations with rare conditions. That's how we started one of our partnerships. We jointly apply national lottery, you know, and when I've got a program for, you know, with a small charity running, being around amazing too passionate about social enterprise yeah.

Heidi: 25:12

So Gabriela's just choking there for a moment because she's so excited about, um, everything that she's done and achieved. So my um, last couple of questions for you, then, um, the the next one is just thinking about what you would say has been the most significant moment so far in your, your time at hope for the community.

Gabriela: 25:40

I think it's when we sort of built a team, when it stopped being just me right at the beginning, when we had people on board that felt as passionate about what we do as I did and, you know, still being in contact with the original founders. It's that notion of having a team Still being here. We've celebrated 10 years as a social enterprise on Monday this week and I think just being here 10 years is fantastic, having a team that is really passionate about the work and great Having our partners. And you know, for me it was a time when I've met somebody who went on the whole program way before even the gig was founded because it dates back to like 2007 and said that she still has friends from that group and that it has changed her life, because now she's engaging more in art and in other activities and her son's benefiting from the program programs is somebody who comes to you in such a long time and you didn't even you know I didn't have engagement with them then but somebody for whom the experience was so life-changing Still now it just that's what, and all the feedback we get good or bad is what gets me out of bed.

Gabriela: 27:02

But yeah, the big moment was when we built a team. And of course, you know the national award last year was a really nice Christmas present In the fact that we've built technology only that shortly and it was externally recognised by people as something that was worthy both in our sector but also in technology as a national award. So yeah, all of those things. I think it's just every day I have a job and I always say like I don't ever want to do anything else. So you know I'm going to work really hard to make sure we've got at least another 10, 50. I don't know how long I'm going to. You know I'll probably never stop working, but you know that's it.

Heidi: 27:49

It's really hard to put it to one thing, but all of those yeah, it sounds wonderful when you describe that, the person that had that experience all those years ago, and they're still part of that family in effect, aren't they?

Gabriela: 28:06

Yes, and it's quite coincidental. I tend to meet people from other charities and they sort of say, oh, I was a facilitator in 2009 on the HOPE programme. You know when it started and that's how some of these conversations start, and it's really interesting because then they know what you're talking about and they're always still here or we could do something together. And I think it's. You know, I feel really privileged to, because I'm not the founder, not the origins, but to have been given this gift of hope of something that that is just so fantastic, you know, accepted by people, accepted by you know, customers, you know the NHS, clinicians, academics that you know. You just then have got the right to try to find a way how to, how to make it work sustainably.

Heidi: 28:58

So I feel very privileged to be in that position you can hear it from the way you talk about it that you definitely have that sense of appreciation for those that came before you. So final question for you what are the future plan? Obviously you've said you're going to be around forever. You, you're going to still be working here when you're a hundred. What? What do you hope to achieve through hope?

Gabriela: 29:26

well, let's go to the next podcast, when we're both 80 or something like that. Yeah, don't we like?

Gabriela: 29:31

follow on well, we, we are, like I said, we sort of hit hitting the next 10 years and you know, having sort of felt like the last five years were quite, it's now sort of looking at how do we really think about what? What does you know our impact mean for us? So I'm not necessarily talking about growth, because everybody wants to grow and Gail. We obviously want to offer the programs to as many people as possible. We want to support people with a lot of conditions or provide a population-wide programs. But for me it's really getting to that stage of now. We are renewing our board just currently, so bringing new board members to help us with the technology. My coding 101 only goes as far as it went. So future-proofing the technology. We know technology advancement in the last few years with AI and everything. So what does the future look like in that space? So really important to address that. Look at our partnership and business development, how we are more sustainable, but also having people who sort of bring the experience of being on our programme into our board with their own lived experience to sort of share that. So it's me now looking out to have that sort of strategy planning with people who might help shape what the next 10 years, because I couldn't have predicted what the five years would have been like. You would ask me if we talk to each other in 2020, nobody would know.

Gabriela: 31:03

But it's now about how do we keep going. How are we still here? How do we create more impact, being deeper and supporting people in different groups, or be wider, going international? We know supported self-management can work across boundaries. More people are diagnosed with chronic analysis. More people become carers. We know mental health is a big area of work. We know the government's 10-year plan and we try to feed into that in terms of treatment, from treatment to prevention, from hospital to community, from analog to digital. If you just took those three things and started thinking we need more technology, social enterprises to do more analog to digital. If you just took those three things, it's like thinking we need more technology, social enterprises to do more in this space. So, yeah, that's the plans is sort of a board, a plan, and then the plan never works that way. It's a bit obviously up and down, so see how we get that. But yeah, ultimately, making us stronger, more sustainable, make more profit. We can reinvest if we can. Yeah, and hopefully I'll still have a job. Are we doing this podcast?

Heidi: 32:05

again yeah, if podcasts are still around, then oh yes, oh yeah.

Gabriela: 32:12

Who knows what will be the thing then.

Heidi: 32:14

God, goodness knows what it will be. There'll be some virtual reality thing, and well beyond virtual reality, because we already have that.

Gabriela: 32:21

But yeah, we will see.

Heidi: 32:23

Is there anything else that you would like to share that I haven't asked you, or anything you want to mention before I ask you for your social media link?

Gabriela: 32:34

I guess for me is that sort of you know, in our sector, the voluntary sector, I think, there's different levels of how we use digital and there's, you know, there's a bit of a fear or maybe a little bit of unknown what it's like, how could it work, how expensive it can be. And I would just like to, you know, for people to think about if they need to use technology, because technology doesn't work for everything and, if they do, to sort of think about the models of working with. You know other people who maybe have done it, just to sort of get a sense whether it, whether it works or not, because digital is here to stay, but we need to, you know, and ar is coming and you know, but it's just a, you know, the responsible digital, the ethical digital, the unwasteful digital, I think for me it's. It's we've seen enough waste in devices and now there's a lot of waste in software, and so I would encourage people to sort of look out to organisations like us to sort of say how did you do it, how can we do it? Because I don't want people to put their eggs in the basket of digital being the way, when actually it might not be.

Gabriela: 33:52

And once you go tech you can't go back, but you can do it in a sustainable and, you know in our sector in a non-wasteful way. So if anybody's thinking about digital, not really quite sure how to do it, we have a platform Anybody could try anything on and we'd be happy to partner in that, just to make sure that our sector can compete with those big technology companies that maybe don't have the ethos and the values and don't return so much. Maybe don't have the ethos and the values and don't return so much not all of them, but you know, don't return so much into the society that we can, because I think you know if we can be good competitors for them, there is nothing stopping us against the tech tech bros I don't know whether that's an official term, but you know, against those tech giants because as long as we do stuff in a meaningful way, we can do it as well or better than them definitely so that that's a fantastic offer there from Gabriela.

Heidi: 34:50

If anyone wants to get tech wise or digi wise, I'm gonna call it. Do you get in touch with Gabriela and use their platform if you you want to play around, learn and see what you can do. So final thing, then, is just for you to share your social media links. So how can people get hold of of Hope for the Community and or connect with you if they want to get into digital or just find out more about all the fabulous things you're up to?

Gabriela: 35:22

so we we're just simply at hope4 tc. So hope for the community, because it is a mouthful. We're on facebook, linkedin, instagram, x and and potentially blue sky. That that's one, that's one to consider, but you know, and also myself, and also myself, Gabriela Matouskova a very long name to spell, but probably not many that you can find.

Heidi: 35:48

I think you're the only one.

Gabriela: 35:50

I'm the only one with the OVA at the end. So you know, I'm happy to talk to people, or people to you know, look at what we do. You know I don't mind direct contact. It's absolutely fine because this is how we work. We work in partnership, we share, and that's what you know will keep me here till I'm 80. Or longer or longer, yes, of course. Living well, yes, yes.

Heidi: 36:21

There's always hope. Yeah, you can always do one of your own programs and live well for longer I live it every day.

Gabriela: 36:28

That is actually really interesting. But you know you do have to practice what you preach and I think I do definitely have learned throughout how to manage my own. You know, all that stuff drilling, lockdown and all that having not had some of the tools that we've got on the program that work for me well.

Heidi: 36:44

Thank you so much, Gabriela. It's been really lovely talking to you, as always, but it's nice to get you to talk more about the, the journey with hope for the community and for you to share that so thank you so much.

Gabriela: 36:58

Thank you so much for inviting me he, and thanks everyone for listening as well.

Heidi: 37:05

I hope you've enjoyed today's session with Gabriela from Hope for the Community. If you'd like to find out any more about the work that I do, I'm Heidi Fisher. I run a social enterprise called Make an Impact and I help organisations to better measure, manage and communicate the impact that they have, and I do this mainly through supporting you to put into place data collection systems, producing impact reports, doing evaluations and social return on investment and value for money. So, looking at the potential savings that you make to the public sector. You can also check out other episodes of the make an impact podcast. There are loads and loads of social enterprises and entrepreneurs that have been on the podcast if you're looking for inspiration or ideas around how they measure the impact and obviously, do get in touch with me if you need any help. You can connect with me on linkedin. Thank you.