Building Sustainable Communities Funding new solutions to real world social, economic and environmental challenges This year’s Community Innovators programme saw 18 groups pitching for a share of £140,000 of seed funding. The teams presented their ideas and proposed solutions to a panel of judges. Sarah McLaughlin (MEAAP - Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership) “Community Innovators has injected a fresh and inventive thinking process to our team when developing ideas for our projects. Not only have we been successful in two application processes resulting in our Ready Steady Agewell and Hard to Swallow campaigns but we have now embedded the design thinking process in our everyday development process, helping us continue to create alternative approaches to helping our older people to agewell.” Techies in Residence Pitch for £25,000 Seed Fund Techies in Residence, create a powerful change within communities through digital technology. Six groups of finalists came together to pitch at the Techies in Residence Showcase in the Guildhall for a proportion of the Bank of Ireland Seed Fund. PPR one of the successful groups were awarded £5,000 to develop an app supporting homeless people. Marissa Mc Mahon, PPR “Since launching the app we have supported nineteen homeless people who were denied official homeless status until we intervened. They are the tip of the iceberg. Many more homeless people have no support at all and will spend weeks, months and years in hostels waiting for recognition. In the meantime Housing Rights Watch will be rolling out in hostels providing support to homeless people to claim their rights. Without Techies in Residence coaching us through the app development we never would have got to this stage.” 12
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