LIVING LAB Spin-off, Inspire (March 2023)
What started as a small pilot in Dublin in 2020 in our living lab, with support from strategic partner LinkedIn, has now grown into a national programme.
FUTURE ACTIVATORS: Human centred system design in a Dublin town (April, 2023)
How third level students learnt and applied human centred system design in a Dublin community, and why we need to be doing more of this!
IE Digital Town Award Finalist (April 2023)
We were thrilled to hear that our social innovate project, Inspire Mentoring www.inspirementoring.ie was nominated for the Digital Education award by the team in Digital Town.
INSPIRE Mentoring Showcase (March 2023)
We celebrated the success and impact of our Inspire Mentoring programme in Ireland. The Innovate Communities team wish to thank everyone who has been with us on this exciting journey, to develop a social innovation idea into a thriving national service for our Irish youth. This is social innovation in practice; beautiful, sustainable, together (#neweuropeanbauhaus)!
FUTURE ACTIVATORS presentation at Spanish Conference (March, 2023)
We are presenting at the Spanish FUTURE conference and planning the future of FUTURE (!) – an EU capacity building programme for university students, municipalities, and even CSR professionals in using design and system thinking tools to work collectively with citizens on urban problems.
Shining a spotlight on Irish social innovation | ThinkBusiness (March, 2022)
In a nutshell, social innovation is about creating the ideas for change and social enterprise is about the business model for social change. Often, some social innovations become social enterprises
Breaking the bias: Women speak out ahead of IWD (rte.ie) (March, 2022)
At 29 my biggest barriers were trying to find my voice and developing the courage to use it in an environment that was predominately older, white and male,” she explained.
This Working Life: Fiona Descoteaux, chief executive and founder of Innovate Communities, on the imp | Business Post (February, 2022)
In 2015, I restructured and developed the company, launching Innovate Communities, a social enterprise focused on fostering community-driven solutions. I was extremely driven to find a way of working with others to improve the way our community services work, to simply make communities better.
Fifteen companies shortlisted for Irish Times Innovation Awards – The Irish Times (January, 2022)
The 2021 Irish Times Innovation Awards will be held later this year. A record number of entries have been received, and some 15 companies across five sectors have been shortlisted for the awards, with the overall prize going to one of the category winners.
Ballymun’s Innovative Communities in line for honours (dublingazette.com) (January, 2022)
Innovate Communities, a leading social enterprise and registered charity based in Ballymun, has been announced as a finalist in the New Frontiers category of The Irish Times Innovation Awards 2022.