Developing the social innovation field

The Young Foundation is helping to build the field of social innovation in four main ways:

• Practice: developing practical ways of designing, shaping, and growing social innovations through Launchpad, which is primarily focused on education and health but also working in other fields. Launchpad is one of a number of accelerators around the world that are developing new ways to finance and grow effective innovations (from Pittsburgh to Estonia, Canada to New Zealand)
• Understanding: research on the past, present and future of social innovation, including a series of overview reports (‘Social Silicon Valleys’ and ‘Social Innovation’ published by Said Business School at Oxford); new research studies on growth and scaling up of social innovations (forthcoming in July) and on what makes localities innovative. These are contributing to a growing field of research on the field, which includes centres in the Netherlands, Canada, the US, Singapore.
• Networks: global networks, with the Social Innovation Exchange which has been launched in beta form this year prompted by a programme of work in China. This is providing a network of networks to link together the many organisations and individuals working in the field, from public policy and social entrepreneurship to design and community action.
• Tools: developing practical tools which can be shared around the world, including training courses and modules; tools for guiding financial commitments; tools for helping innovators and organisations decide on alternative growth strategies; open source tools for developing projects; and tools for helping local innovation.
  

Although there have always been social innovators this remains a field at an early stage of development, with relatively little established knowledge or practice. Through SIX we are aiming to bring together the players and pioneers to speed up mutual learning – and we are constantly on the look out for others who want to join us in this journey.