New guidelines to support user involvement in social innovation

Innovage Logo-smallThe EU-funded project INNOVAGE has recently published a report aimed at facilitating the involvement of older users in the social innovation process. TheGuidelines on involving older people in social innovation development have been developed by AGE Platform Europe on the basis of literature findings and of the experience of working with older people gained in the framework of INNOVAGE and other European research projects.

Involving older users in the planning and development of innovative approaches is essential when developing new goods and/or services. Transforming users into partners ensures relevance and adequacy of new approaches and will help them to be implemented and adapted to different contexts.

Therefore, these guidelines aim to present a strong recommendation for involvement of older people in the planning, development and implementation of social innovations, new ideas meeting social needs and creating new relationships or collaboration. They also provide social innovators with practical tips to incorporate users’ perspectives in the social innovation processes.

The guidelines have been conceived to present some common practices and suggestions for allowing the genuine participation of seniors in the social innovation process. The document highlights the complexity of dealing with users and of engaging with them, while suggesting useful methodologies for user involvement, taking into account the inter-disciplinary approach needed when discussing and implementing social innovation.

This report was first presented at the International Conference on Integrated Care 2015 in Edinburgh on 25-27 March, in which AGE was invited to present INNOVAGE activities.

Download the report at https://t.co/T3sXKLUkZ2

For more information on this document and the INNOVAGE project, please contact alice.sinigaglia@age-platform.eu

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