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community innovation

Looking beyond proven practices to create new, never-before considered solutions that are meaningful to the community.

Innovation

Paper

The Innovation Ambition Continuum

The Three Ambitions Continuum is a mash-up of some of the most popular change-oriented frameworks floating around the field that aims to provide one way that social innovators can make sense of it all.

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Youth Innovation

Stories of Impact

10 Stories of Community Innovation for Youth

Learn how recipients of Tamarack's Community Innovation fund implemented pilots and documented their learnings, including successes, challenges, impact on youth, and barriers that youth experienced over the course of the project.

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Innovation creates a solution that is distinct from – and more ambitious and uncertain – than continuous improvement. What makes Community Innovation different from other forms of Social Innovation is the focus on community – placing community members as both the champions and as the arbiters of change.

 

getting started

People Meeting Together

The Community Innovation Imperative

Innovation

The Introduction to Community Innovation

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Community Innovation: A Place-Based Approach to Social Innovation

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SENSEMAKING WORKSHOP

Innovative yet practical strategies to improve understanding, clarity, and collaboration.

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meet the director

Sonja is the Consulting Director of Tamarack Institutes’s Community Innovation Area. She is a dynamic educator, social scientist, and innovator with over 16 years of experience in the sector. Having lived, worked, and played in over 90 countries, she has a broad spectrum of international experience that cuts across the public, private and civil society sectors.

Sonja is a long-standing advocate for community-led innovation and development. Known for bringing larger-than-life initiatives into being, Sonja thrives on building meaningful relationships and connecting the dots in innovative ways. 

 

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Current Themes Being Explored: 
 

  • Community-based Social Innovation Labs
  • Exploring Inclusive Co-design - How might we develop new and equitable ways of engaging and co-designing with people with lived experience?  
  • How can community innovation contribute to building belonging?

ARTICLE | The Four Actions to Create an Asset-Based World
ARTICLE | Community as the Superhero
ARTICLE | Community as the Superhero
Announcing the 13 champions building belonging through the Circle of Actions
Announcing the 13 champions building belonging through the Circle of Actions
ARTICLE | Belonging, Community and Climate Action
ARTICLE | Belonging, Community and Climate Action
 Interconnected Practices for Community and Systems Impact
ARTICLE | Interconnected Practices for Community and Systems Impact
ARTICLE | Harnessing the power of networking: The case of the National Table of Community Development Corporations
Neighbours Taking a Strengths-Based Approach to Increase Emotional Well-Being in Their Community
Neighbours Taking a Strengths-Based Approach to Increase Emotional Well-Being in Their Community
In Good Company – The Collective Social Innovation Award
ARTICLE | “I felt the power, I felt the fire”: Empowering Newcomers to the Peel Region Through Participatory Grantmaking
ARTICLE | Making the Case for Arts-Based Engagement
ARTICLE | Making the Case for Arts-Based Engagement
ARTICLE | Citizens take the lead in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood
ARTICLE | Citizens take the lead in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood
Article | How Field Catalysts Accelerate Collective Impact
ARTICLE | How Field Catalysts Accelerate Collective Impact
The Innovation Ambition Continuum
PAPER | The Innovation Ambition Continuum
PAPER | Building Collective Impact Capacity | Why Now?
PAPER | Building Collective Impact Capacity - Why Now?
PAPER | The Collaboration Spectrum Revisited
ARTICLE | Solving the Puzzle of Collaborative Governance
PAPER | Evolving the Practice of Collective Impact: Inspiration from the Field
How to Recruit Diverse Community Groups
PAPER | Understanding Community-Led Approaches to Community Change
ARTICLE | Asset-Based Community Recovery Framework
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Generating the results that communities urgently need to tackle today’s social challenges will require more than simply making incremental changes to our current approaches. As dynamic ‘living labs’, communities offer the perfect container for innovation.

Our experience with community change has taught us to appreciate that to be effective, Community Innovation requires an appreciation of both the issue one is hoping to address, as well as a deep understanding of the unique characteristics of the community – the place and the people within it – where the innovation will be implemented. Successful Community Innovation is context-specific. Solutions that have been proven effective in one community can, at best, serve as a source of inspiration for another community. 

 

upcoming events


Evaluation 101
Evaluation 101
Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science Through Two-Eyed Seeing
Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science Through Two-Eyed Seeing
Introduction à l’évaluation
Introduction à l’évaluation
Social Infrastructure and Community Safety as Catalysts for Belonging
Social Infrastructure and Community Safety as Catalysts for Belonging
Making Sense Together: Practical Approaches to Collaborative Sensemaking
Making Sense Together: Practical Approaches to Collaborative Sensemaking
Insights from the DEV Lab Youth Employment and Skills Project: From Data to Action
Insights from the DEV Lab Youth Employment and Skills Project: From Data to Action
Community Engagement: From Debate to Dialogue
Community Engagement: From Debate to Dialogue
Community Futures: Using the Future in Collaborative Changemaking
Community Futures: Using the Future in Collaborative Changemaking
Fundamentals of ABCD
Fundamentals of ABCD
From Assets to Action: Unlocking Community Potential through Asset Mapping
From Assets to Action: Unlocking Community Potential through Asset Mapping
Transforming Conflict into Growth
Transforming Conflict into Growth
2025 Changemaker Experience
2025 Changemaker Experience
L'Évaluation 201: Évaluer vos impacts
L'Évaluation 201: Évaluer vos impacts
Evaluation 201: Impact Evaluation
Evaluation 201: Impact Evaluation
Embracing Collective Leadership Workshop
Embracing Collective Leadership Workshop
Stratégies philanthropiques pour un impact durable des organisations communautaires
Stratégies philanthropiques pour un impact durable des organisations communautaires
Advancing Systems Change with Collective Impact
Advancing Systems Change with Collective Impact
Policy Change to Support Community-Driven Outcomes
Policy Change to Support Community-Driven Outcomes
Facilitation Skills for Collective Impact
Facilitation Skills for Collective Impact
Developing Your Collaboration Impact Story
Developing Your Collaboration Impact Story

get in touch

We’re happy to answer questions, discuss community issues and direct you to trusted resources. Get in touch with a specific team member or submit a general inquiry.

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