Building Change Trust: Social Innovation Skills Programme
Overview
The Social Innovation Skills Programme is the first of its kind in Northern Ireland and is for individuals and organisations with an interest in learning some of the key social innovation methods and applying them to a real world challenge facing communities in Northern Ireland.
Previous recipients of the scheme have included the NOW Project, who worked with Creative Metrics to develop a digital prototype of their JAM (Just a Minute) card, which is used by people with a learning disability to help them communicate that they need a bit more time in daily transactions, from getting on a bus to buying groceries; and MACS NI who undertook a creative re-design of their residential care model for vulnerable young people.
A total of £350,000 worth of support is being made available through a combination of training, mentoring, technical support and grants for eligible groups to work on a specific social challenge facing individuals and communities in Northern Ireland.
The programme is free to access and all applicants need is an issue they’re passionate about, an interest in social innovation and the time and ambition to develop an innovative new solution to their challenge together with their team.
What is available?
Those receiving a place on the Social Innovation Skills Programme will be invited to nominate their teams (of up to 4) with a common interest in the same challenge. Teams will then be taken through a facilitated programme of six workshops starting in January 2018 to further refine their challenge and help them gel as a team.
In addition Work West, Enterprise North West and the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland will provide a combination of in-person and remote mentoring for teams to help them get the most out of the process and troubleshoot any challenges that arise.
There will be a final workshop where all 15 teams will come together to share their findings, experience and innovative solutions. Teams will receive mentoring support to help implement their new solutions.
All teams completing the Social Innovation Skills Programme will be eligible to apply for the Social Innovation NI seed fund to enable them to start delivering their solution for real.