The growing importance of
social innovation
The results of social innovation are all around us.
Self-help health groups and self-build housing;
telephone help lines and telethon fundraising;
neighbourhood nurseries and neighbourhood wardens;
Wikipedia and the Open University; complementary
medicine, holistic health and hospices; microcredit
and consumer cooperatives; charity shops and the
fair trade movement; zero carbon housing schemes
and community wind farms; restorative justice
and community courts. All are examples of social
innovation – new ideas that work to meet pressing
unmet needs and improve peoples’ lives