The Young Foundation recently joined forces with the Arden Commissioning Support Unit in the West Midlands to develop and support local social ventures with an interest in solving some of the health service’s most intractable problems. These include such issues as obesity, support for the frail and elderly, effective management of long term conditions and... Find out more
Blog
The Young Foundation welcomes contributions from many sectors and standpoints - views expressed here are not necessarily held by The Young Foundation.
Ideas, as well as people, now move more freely. We have put new models, drawn from other classes and other parts of the world, before the local people, creating new aspirations and new ideas.Michael Young and Peter Willmott.
Family and Kinship in East London, 1957
The powerful impact of a nod and a smile: from diversity to neighbourliness
Londoners actively celebrate the fact that we come from all corners of the world, and in the main, we “rub along” fine. But many of us come from places where people talk to each other on trains and buses, chat in every queue and waiting room and give and receive help from their neighbours as... Find out more
Social Innovation in Practice: Slovakia
While interning at The Young Foundation in London, I have learnt about many inspiring ideas and projects tackling various social problems. My chats usually end with the same question for me: “And what is the situation in Slovakia like?” Although social innovation is not a well-known term in my country, I would argue that it... Find out more
Going it alone….and succeeding: Kosice IT Valley
On the same day as I started to write this blog, a Slovak newspaper published an article on its front page with the title: “Double salaries? Reality in Košice”. The article highlights the success of Slovakia’s new Silicon Valley-inspired cluster, known as Košice IT Valley. So far it is succeeding in creating thousands of new... Find out more
At The Forefront Of Social Innovation In Latin America: Colombia
Why Colombia is a country facing big challenges and offering up big solutions that rest of the world would do well to take notice of. It’s not all about Brazil – though the media might lead you to believe otherwise. Lesser known but not less exciting things are also happening in other Latin America countries,... Find out more
Can’t handle the heat? You’re not alone.
The streets and parks of London have been overrun during the recent heat wave. At first glance, it would appear that everyone is outside soaking up the rays and socialising. But sadly this is not the case. As many as 760 people in the UK have died as a result of the heat. We will... Find out more
Space, place and disruptive social innovation
It’s a biting cold November morning. A hardy group of designers, design enthusiasts and enthusiastic amateurs are hauling 6 foot wooden panels up a narrow staircase into a former bedsit in Bethnal Green. Today this group and I have swapped the usual lie-in and fry up for a day of disruptive DIY. We’ll be converting... Find out more
Should birds of a feather always flock together?
The RSA recently hosted an event called ‘Are diverse communities possible?’ where Zachary Neal, assistant professor of Sociology and Global Urban Studies at Michigan State University, presented the potentially paradoxical relationship between neighbourhood integration and cohesion. This issue strongly resonates with the work we have been doing at The Young Foundation on community resilience. His... Find out more
AMPLIFY: local activism in a digital world
How do you get the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to live on £53 per week? How do you get the first non-white President elected to the highest office in the Western world? And how do you get 1.6 billion people to watch a lesser known K-Pop star prance about on an imaginary... Find out more
Mainstreaming migrant social enterprise
Four years ago Lola and Sarah arrived in the UK homeless and with little English. Today they are setting up their own social enterprise. Now both fluent English speakers, they provide information, advice and guidance services to people in similar circumstances to those they had to overcome just a few years ago. When asked what... Find out more