Purpose
The public sector is struggling to address such a complex problem. I2I will focus on innovation in service delivery (including utilising new technology, e.g. serious gaming, apps, chatbots, VR/AR) through bringing organisations together and co-creating solutions with the target groups.
Therefore, the overall objective in I2I is to enhance innovation in social service delivery to improve social inclusion and counteract loneliness in NSR communities and neighbourhoods.
Project description
The NSR regions involved will increase the capacity of public authorities to develop innovative services and provide them with new tools and solutions in order to improve social inclusion and tackle loneliness. It aims to do this by making existing services more integrated and improving cross-sector collaboration using a quadruple helix user-centred approach working with service-/co-design methods.
Transnational cooperation enhances both efficiency and promotes broader thinking to stimulate innovation. It provides the testing ground for innovative community-based interventions and tools, creating more effective services for citizens while raising awareness of the issue in the NSR and increasing the innovation capacity of the public sector in regions around the Northsea to deal with social isolation.
Results
This important project is a unique collaboration between 12 partners in 7 North Sea region countries to tackle loneliness and social isolation through collaborative working and innovation, connecting communities and increasing happiness. This short video sums up the I2I programme at the Canal & River Trust, what it achieved through the hard work of our community inclusion co-ordinators Katie and Sharron, and how the good work might be sustained beyond the end of the project.
Through a combination of social prescribing and community networks the I2I project delivered a wide range of activities designed to reduce social isolation and loneliness in some of the more deprived areas of Leeds and Nottingham. A key aspect of tackling social isolation is making things easily accessible for all, through free transport for example. This enabled people to attend activities who otherwise might not have been able to: giving them a chance to meet new people and try new things, as evidenced by the testimony in the video. Activities ranged from art and crafts and poetry sessions, making bird boxes, knitting (and yarn bombing!); to paddle sports and boat trips.
The evaluation of the project confirms the achievement of not just the projects outcomes of reducing loneliness and social isolation, but some additional, unexpected benefits for participants including improved wellbeing and happiness, increased resilience and self-confidence, and nature connection. These unexpected benefits add to the great achievements of the I2I programme and should be factored into the planning for similar projects in the future.