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  • Supporting people to contribute and do things they enjoy

Grapevine - Ideas Factory Co-creating innovation across the system

What is the problem this innovation solves?

Frustrated by the ineffectiveness of traditional service models and the reduction in public services we’ve searched for new solutions that unlock the abundant pre-existing resources in communities and solve problems for good. 

Solution

The Ideas Factories are activities through which Grapevine co-creates innovative activities and solutions, and builds the capacity of system ‘leaders’ from all sectors and communities across Coventry.  

The Ideas Factories began in November 2015 as informal meeting places for co-creating solutions to shared problems.  The factories are held at regular intervals in response to specific challenges felt by members of the system (eg. rough sleeping).  There is an increasingly well-established format for the factories, which entails meeting in a community venue, telling stories in relation to a shared challenge and then moving into action planning using a variety of tools and techniques.

There have been several generic factories to date, often focusing on particular groups such as mothers of children with learning difficulties, or people with long-term conditions.  But as well as generating innovation, the factories serve as a recruiting forum for ‘leaders’, gathered around shared needs

Evidence base

3 years track record of changes created and capacity for action generated

Expected impact

A growth in capacity for action on shared challenges, unlocking participation and new forms of leadership; greater levels of social action on problems.

Stage/spread

Early - needs to be codified - exists in Coventry and Warwickshire under Grapevine's banner

What would councils/health organisations/local areas need to do or have in place to enable it to happen?

Make time; openess to unconventional methods of gathering; ability to let go of power and control

What would kill it?

The opposite of the above

Where to go for more information

https://youtu.be/vxejkap3Kro