What are Social Innovation Labs?
In a nutshell, Labs hold space for diverse change makers to sense make, generate, develop, and test a portfolio of promising solutions to address complex societal challenges in a way that is collaborative, experimental, iterative, and systemic. To learn more about what we mean when we say “Lab” checkout Stream One of Inquiry here.
Examples of Labs in Action
Below we’ve pulled three videos that showcase what a Lab can look like in action. They are a small sample size of what Labs can be, but give anyone new to the space, a tangible example of what the work can look like. If you have a video on a Lab that you’d like to see profiled here reach out at actionlab@skillssociety.ca.
This 10 minute mini documentary showcases the Future of Home: Inclusive Housing Solutions Lab that focussed on co-creating accessible, affordable, and inclusive housing and support models with people with intellectual disabilities, their allies, and system stakeholders. You can learn more about the project here.
A quick 2 minute video created by Social Innovation Generation Canada (SiG) that outlines a social innovation approach - what it is and how its impactful.
This 10 minute, mini documentary highlights Design by Doing 2.0, a social innovation process that explored barriers to employment for Bhutanese newcomers in Edmonton. You can learn more about the project here.
Labs Around the World
The Labs Community
Ever wondered who else is doing Lab or “Lab-Like” work? Here we’ve created a compilation of Labs doing work we admire in Canada and beyond. Do you have a lab you’d like to submit? Submissions will be reviewed for approval by the Future of Labs team. Submit a lab >
Action Lab
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
actionlab.ca
A space to think differently and make things happen, Action Lab is a physical space that can be rented, builds capacity amongst community members and organisations to use Lab practices in their work including hosting Systemic Design eXchange a community of practice, and co-designs Lab processes with diverse communities and organisations looking for alternative approaches to tackling complex social challenges. Past projects include: Edmonton Shift Lab that explored racism in Edmonton, Future of Home: Inclusive Housing Solutions Lab that prototyped inclusive housing and support models with people with intellectual disabilities, Design by Doing 2.0 that explored pathways to employment with the Bhutanese community, and the Curbside Accessible Parking Project that looked at improving accessibility of curbside parking in Edmonton. Action Lab’s unique structure, nestled under a larger non profit organisation, supports its overall sustainability.
InWithForward
Canada based but also works internationally
inwithforward.com
A social design organisation that makes human services more human. Past work includes Family by Family a matching platform for families in contact with the child protection system, Get Together addressing social isolation among older people using the telephone, Loops connecting young people to new horizon broadening experiences, Grounded Space a 2 year exploration around building a culture of experimentation in Canadian social organisations, and
Standing Up or Moving Forward which explored flourishing with women in a domestic violence shelter.
NouLAB
New Brunswick
Pond-Deshpande Centre, University of New Brunswick
ponddeshpande.ca/noulab/
A Social Innovation Lab that offers capacity building, strategic planning, project support, innovation lab stewardship, and service design. Two recent Social Innovation Labs they’ve stewarded include the Economic Immigration Lab and Early Childhood Education Lab.
MaRS Discovery District
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
www.marsdd.com/
As North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity, MaRS provides direct support for startups, builds communities of innovators and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. They host MaRS IAF, an early stage investment fund; connect innovators seeking employment with high growth tech companies; rent out their spaces as event venues; and provide hands on support to start ups.
Social Innovation Canada
Canada-wide
sicanada.org
Social Innovation Canada’s Labs are designed to focus on complex problems and to build strategies for transformation in systems. SI Canada co-led the Financialization of Housing Lab and is currently leading the Hamilton Transit Oriented Affordable Housing Lab, both CMHC Solutions Lab projects. In its early stages, the Climate and Equity Lab, a collaboration between Gore Mutual Foundation, Social Innovation Canada (SI Canada), and York
University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, aims to understand the impacts of climate change on vulnerable groups in Canadian urban areas, emphasis
The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI)
Australia
www.tacsi.org.au/
Formed in 2009 as an initiative of the South Australian Government, TACSI is an independent social enterprise working in the following action areas: mental health, social R&D, people powered responses, future of home, regenerative communities, and the social innovation workforce. Family by Family is one example of a TACSI born innovation that has scaled.
UpSocial
Spain
upsocial.org
UpSocial works in five lines of action: innovations, capacity building, scaling, policies, and learnings. UpSocial has supported the development and implementation of numerous projects spanning diverse challenge areas including: universal access to sustainable food, social inclusion, promoting mental well being, generating employment in the green economy to name a few. STEM Lab, a project of UpSocial, produced JUMP Math which is a math program that is now scaling internationally.
Dark Matter Labs
Originated in the UK but now works globally
darkmatterlabs.org
An ambitious not-for-profit, the team at Dark Matter analyses shifts required in the underlying ‘dark matter’ (i.e. monetary, economic, governance, regulatory and policy systems) to manifest transformations to food, housing, land, material, and nature systems that support mutual thriving. Through their imaginative action projects they seek to challenge established thought and demonstrate alternative actions.
Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation
Australia
Griffith University
www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-business-school/centre-for-systems-innovation
Started in 2018, they partner with organisations across sectors to create safe and courageous spaces and action learning opportunities to transform ‘stuck’ systems. Then they take what they’re learning and offer boundary-pushing post graduate courses for adaptive leaders of the future.
UNDP Accelerator Lab
Global
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation, Development of Germany, Qatar Fund for Development
www.undp.org/acceleratorlabs
The UNDP Accelerator Labs is the world’s largest and fastest learning network on wicked sustainable development challenges. The Network is composed of 91 Lab teams covering countries and taps into local innovations to create actionable insights and reimagine sustainable development for the 21st century. The Lab is an interesting example of scaling up a network of people embedded in existing institutional contexts, but operating differently from dominant culture, and connecting the people across geographies. Whilst the scale is alluring (91 geographies), the quality and substance of what the team are building is the most interesting part - a mix of central coordination and sensemaking, and decentralised operations and learning culture.