Skip links

New Community Innovation Challenge launches

We believe in the power of thriving communities in which everyone can live, work and flourish

In every community there are people with the talent, passion and creativity to solve our most pressing problems. We want to give them the space, tools and encouragement to begin.

That’s why Allia are excited to announce the launch of our Community Innovation Challenges.

These challenges bring together like-minded community champions and immerse them in a 30 day hands-on innovation challenge with a single goal: to find and test ideas that can sustainably solve local problems.

During 2017/18 we will be bringing small groups together to find workable ideas around: Hunger, Loneliness, Exclusion, Poverty, Wellbeing and Youth Employment.

Working in conjunction with a local charity or social venture, each challenge will be run over 30 days, beginning with a 2 day ‘design thinking’ boot camp, and followed by 4, weekly ‘ideation’ meet ups.

Throughout the programme delegates are expertly guided through the ‘design thinking’ process, using empathy, experimentation, inspiration and ideation. The community challenge is a dynamic mix of short inspirational workshops, talks, demonstrations, and guided hands-on teamwork, delivered by expert facilitators and coaches actively working to create thriving and sustainable communities.

Over the 2 days participants, including staff from the Allia team and members of the local community, will put those new tools into practice right away, with a real-world innovation challenge set by the local social charity/venture.

Teams will hit the ground running, interviewing and observing service users in the field to understand what motivates them. Then they head back to base camp to ideate and prototype, test and retest to develop fresh, innovative solutions.

Weekly meet ups bring the teams together for ongoing facilitated group work to further develop their ideas and create a rapid prototype. The challenge culminates in each team pitching their ideas to the local social charity/venture wanting to find ideas they can adopt, pilot and scale to further extend their mission.

This is a real world challenge.