Social Innovation Camp NI 2014

SI camp will start with the Challenge Owners – those with a role in social innovation, stakeholders, representatives or employees of small community/voluntary organisations or employees of larger community/voluntary organisations. During the process all participants will be asked to draw on their inspiration, ideas and opinions to solve problems together for collective social good.

Stage 1 : Challenge Workshops late August/ early September 2014

Challenge owners will be helped to uncover big problems that need to be solved - challenges that are easily understood and that are ripe for innovation.

Outcomes:

• Up to 60 challenge owners frame the challenges into achievable and deliverable challenges
• VCS staff introduced to creative problem solving tools and techniques
• A nominated VCS champion for each challenge who will complete an SICamp Challenge form
• 30-40 challenges to go forward to Stage 2 - selected on a ranked system of how well the problem is articulated and how well the challenge is likely to work in this situation.

Stage 2 : Student Engagement Late Sept- Mid November

The social challenges from Stage 1 will be allocated to young people in Further and Higher Education. Students will be trained in design thinking, teams established and each team allocated a social challenge. They will develop innovative, creative solutions to these real social challenges

Outcomes:

• Challenge owners meet with the teams and provide information about the challenge
• Fresh insights, innovative ideas and out of the box thinking on social problems
• Each team deliver a short written report and presentation to the Challenge Champions on what they propose & why
• Engagement between young people/teams and VCS

Stage 3 SI Camp Event Wed 26th November 2014 Crumlin Road Gaol

Up to 25 of the challenges selected by an expert panel of judges go forward to this stage. Students from all the colleges will be brought together for a 10/12 hour deep dive day. Multidisciplinary teams of students will be created and can form around the problems they care about. Challenge Champions will attend on the day The ideas generated in Stage 2 will be further developed and teams will be facilitated to rapidly dive deeper into the challenges, iterate and reiterate ideas and develop visual prototypes. During the day the teams can meet the problem user to ensure that the solutions being proposed are actually meeting users needs. Technical mentors will assist the teams with the prototyping element of their proposals. The day will culminate with a short pitch by each team to the Challenge Champions. Teams will articulate their proposed solutions, outline prototypes and an action plan to take the challenge forward. A panel of judges will identify the most promising ideas.

Outcomes:

• Action plans for each of the challenges on how to take the challenges forward
• The most promising proposals identified
• New business ideas identified
• Next steps agreed with student teams and Challenge Champions
• Support identified for teams who want to take projects to the next stage
• Potential for teams to take the proposals forward for participation in business awards e.g. the existing £25K Awards for business plans from universities n.b. ideas are owned by the teams that develop them as long as they are taking them forward – if not, they can revert to the VCS organisations.

Next Steps

If you want to get involved and for more information please contact Patricia Flanagan [email protected].

Social Innovation Camp is funded by Building Change Trust and Big Lottery Fund