Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group, has been working with the design consultancy Liminal Labs to launch an innovation pop-up lab series. The purpose of the two-day lab sessions is to bring together residents, local organisations and Clarion staff to collaboratively design solutions for an ageing population through different design-thinking activities. So far, successful labs have been run in Merton, Hackney and Peterborough, with participants hailing them as innovative activities that encourage community development.
With social distancing rules in effect, Clarion Futures has worked with Liminal Labs to move sessions online so that all members could attend. In April, the first virtual lab session took place, with sixteen participants coming together on Zoom to share their creative ideas on how they can respond to the social isolation resulting from the current pandemic.
By the end of the two 4-hour sessions, the participants developed two project ideas focused on:
- Supporting communities to grow their own vegetables
- Supporting residents transitioning from work to retirement with a peer support programme
Clarion supports programmes like these to help our residents and communities through different points in their lives. Having successfully launched the online sessions, all the residents and other community stakeholders can continue developing great ideas for future projects.
Keep an eye out for future sessions in your local areas and the projects that come out of them.