A vision for civic engagement
TSIP and Shoreditch Trust are developing a Civic Innovation Hub (CIH) in Hackney. This hub will catalyse Hackney’s citizens and stakeholders to identify, solve and scale solutions to their own challenges and build local value. We will do this by:
Putting people in the lead through citizen-centred design processes;
Authentically co-designing with all people in the London Borough of Hackney, not just the informed;
Driving towards long-term and systemic change, by institutionalising outcomes.
This hub will:
1.Unlock the entrepreneurial spirit of everyone i.e. not just work with people who are already leading change but look to engage the reluctant leader amongst all of Hackney’s community;
2.Emphasise the assets as well as the deficits of the local area. i.e. we are determined not to project issues onto local people but to help them recognise and address any elements of “learned helplessness”;
3.Give everyone who is involved in creating an idea the opportunity to work as part of the delivery team and/or own part of the final products/services. i.e. we would not take peoples ideas and sell them to the highest bidder but we will reward people for their insight.
A key element of the Hub is a physical space that people could visit, join projects, hear about new ways of working and delivering, partner together around a particular challenge or solution, or contribute to learning. To enable this, the hub will host a co-working space, which brings organisations (or local representatives form those organisations) in, who share the values of collaboration and participation, maintain a citizen-led mentality, and are open to rethinking their work through co-design. See here for a list of other partners and supporters of this work.