CalMac's commitment to Ross-shire and other west coast communities is rewarded
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![The MV Loch Seaforth ferry on the Ullapool-Stornoway route. Picture: Alan Jamieson from Aberdeen, via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]](/_media/img/73HMA5K35DUCRBJQ5NI8.jpg)
STAFF at CalMac are celebrating after the ferry operator won an award for its community work.
It has become the first Scottish company to be awarded a Level 2 Social Value Quality Mark for its "commitment to generating social value for its local communities" through initiatives such as the CalMac Community Fund.
Recent research has forecast that for every pound spent by CalMac, communities across the network benefit from a social return of £5.14. Last year, the CalMac Community Fund supported 76 different projects that benefited the lives of children and young people living in west coast communities. It is expected to deliver £676,391 of value over three years.
To gain the Quality Mark, projects supported by the Community Fund had to show real world benefits, such as boosting education, skills, employment, volunteering, and health and wellbeing among others.
CalMac's community programmes were recently praised in a motion lodged in the Scottish Parliament by Donald Cameron, MSP for the Highlands and Islands, and which received cross-party support.
Gordon McKillop, corporate social responsibility manager for CalMac, said: "Our Community Fund is much more than corporate giving. The Community Fund was created to make a difference and we are beginning to see those results. We hope to build on the funds early success and sustain its impact for years to come by tackling the material issues affecting our communities."
This year we will support projects tackling mental health, loneliness, social isolation and or poverty and will announce the successful projects in the coming weeks.
Richard Dickins, MD of Social Value Quality Mark, said: "Today's consumers increasingly make their decisions based on how companies treat their staff, the environment and the society in which they operate. Through the Quality Mark we cultivate and recognise the highest known standards in values-led business.
"This award recognises CalMac's outstanding commitment to create, report and embed social value within the fabric of their organisation. We are delighted to remain their social value partner as they move through up through the levels."
Related news: Ferry operator wins award for its Covid-19 infection controls
