This post originally appeared at www.workingwithjoe.co.uk

Since I started out as a children’s advocate in 2002 I’ve been searching for effective ways of involving children & young people in service development. Not ways where young people are just consulted with, nor where they lead the process and make the decisions, but where they are actively involved as equals, developing ideas and making decisions in genuine partnership with adults. Last Saturday I experienced a great way: Innovation Labs. [Read more...]

After an intense day, the teams are now ready to present their ideas to the rest of the Innovation Lab participants. Working in groups of around 4 to 6, each team has worked on one idea over the day.

They’ve brainstormed, created storyboards and used empathy mapping to fully flesh out their ideas before moving to the prototype stage. They’ve also created posters, illustrations and charts explaining the best points about each developed idea, and explaining why some features have been discarded or refined. Some teams have even written their thoughts on the back of a cereal box! [Read more...]