Innovations
HAIRE's main contribution to innovation comes from the project's approach to innovation. As mentioned in the 'Learnings' section, HAIRE's tools produce the best results when findings and ideas are discussed collaboratively - especially when diverse individuals / groups are involved in these discussions. HAIRE structured its collaborative approach to innovation using two phases:
i) Local workshops to form ideas and implement them. The CREATE process.
ii) Workshops that brought the entire partnership together to design a joint innovation. The SHAPE process.
CREATE
The CREATE process was implemented to take local communities on an innovation journey. Engaging sessions were structured around key issues that HAIRE's tools identified in each community, e.g. mobility, leisure, communication etc. The first step was always the same: identify and agree on what is possible!
It is important to agree on what is possible, as concentrating on an issue that is too big can act as a barrier to innovation. HAIRE worked in rural communities, where the provision of specialised health services has been an issue for decades. If this topic had dominated the CREATE activities, nothing would have been achieved. HAIRE did not have the resources to build specialised health centres and/or employ expert health professionals. Such issues were discussed and given time, as they are important, but efforts concentrated on achievable actions. The image below summarises the journey that each community undertook:
Inspiration for innovation came from HAIRE's tools. The issues that were identified by Guided Conversations were discussed in relation to the resources that were availabe to a community (Neighbourhood Analysis) and the important connections in the community - including connections that seemed to be lacking (Social Network Analysis). Ideation happened during meetings that brought together the partners working in the communities and locals - including volunteers and Guided Conversation participants. Implementation was realised through the efforts of all parties that came together during the ideation phase - including where a co-ordinated effort was needed to engage other individuals and/or groups in realising an innovation. An example here is the engagement of local artists and/or student groups in some of the innovations that were designed in HAIRE's pilot sites.
To summarise, HAIRE's CREATE process helps to address local issues through innovations that are relevant to the experiences of a community. Innovations draw on a community's joint history, common challenges and experiences that relate to new challenges and/or challenges that create inequalities for certain individuals and groups.
HAIRE's approach to innovation becomes particularly powerful when multiple communities use the approach and share learning. The sharing of ideas and working towards a big change across multiple communities relates to HAIRE's SHAPE process. Essentially, the SHAPE process helps in working towards the challenges that were 'too big' for CREATE. The next section discusses SHAPE in more detail.
SHAPE
SHAPE's main goal is to share learning (knowledge and experiences) from local examples of innovation and work towards a big idea. Therefore, during HAIRE, the SHAPE process involved bringing all pilot sites together to identify an overall challenge and key approach.
Agreement on common challenges and key approaches can be achieved by running workshop sessions that involve a mix of representatives from multiple communities. Groups of 6-8 individuals from various communities can meet to discuss:
- What is the big problem? Discussing an array of issues and then finding a common theme that is present across all of them helps here. For example, in HAIRE, partners realised that transport services, health and social care visits to older adults and services that changed from in-person co-ordination to digital co-ordination were problematic because older adults were not involved in the design of such services. The common issue was the exclusion of older adults from decision-making processes.
- What can be done? This discussion should focus on the steps that can be achieved and then move on to what can/should be done in the future - organising these steps into a successive set of actions can help to define the innovation's final goal.
- What is the final goal? The final part of the discussion should focus on summarising an ideal ending point for the innovation. This ending point can be a big aim that ensures continuous activity and efforts in the communities involved, e.g. big aim: the involvement of older adults in decision-making processes - or even bigger: the creation of open spaces and discussions that encourage the whole community to come together over local decision-making.
The agreement made by HAIRE's partners is summarised below (each flag - Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - represents a HAIRE pilot site):
The challenge: Creating a social infrastructure by mobilising and empowering a complex ecosystem of different partners and ensuring an effective operational culture.
Key approach: Ensure opportunities are created for older adults to access decision-making processes and contribute to shaping local services – share case studies beyond HAIRE.
The summary of the big idea can end up sounding quite technical (as above). Often, it is difficult to find one sentence or phrase that summarises such a big idea. Therefore, action and communication about the big idea should focus on practical steps. Regular meetings between communities and collecting a record of potential actions can help with momentum towards realising the big idea. Steps can be made more manageable by categorising them in relation to a community's components. Potential categories for organising actions are listed below:
- People, e.g. residents, community leaders, volunteers etc.
- Health, e.g. hospitals, local clinics, nurses, specialist healthcare providers etc.
- Education, e.g. schools, colleges, universities, adult education etc.
- Housing, e.g. social housing, town planning services etc.
- Civic entities, e.g. community, village and/or town halls, sports facilities etc.
- Transport, e.g. public transport providers, community transport organisers / volunteers etc.
- Arts and Cultural Heritage, e.g. museums, arts movements, heritage organisations
An example of how to organise potential actions is provided by the following document: Actions for HAIRE's Challenge
To ensure action towards the challenge continues, meetings between the participating communities should finish with every meeting attenee writing down an action that they will work on next. Then, any following meetings can begin by discussing the progress made towards everyone's individual action. Discussions should focus on sharing barriers to realising the action, positives (i.e. what has worked?) and ideas on how to overcome the barriers that were experienced. Through such discussions, opportunities to inspire each other emerge!
Referenties
- Actions for HAIRE's Challenge, HAIRE, University of Exeter, 27 maart 2023.