Toivola-Luotolan Setlementti wanted to explore new ways to support the integration of immigrant families. Taskmill designed and facilitated an innovation workshop for the Aito project, bringing together professionals from different municipalities to co-create solutions. The workshop generated dozens of new ideas and around ten concepts for further development.
Toivola-Luotolan Setlementti organised the innovation workshop as part of the ESR-funded Aito project, which focused on supporting immigrant integration. The project aimed to strengthen regional collaboration between professionals working with immigrant families and develop new tools and practices to support integration across the municipalities of Sea Lapland.
Planning the innovation workshop started with understanding current needs
“We started preparing for the innovation day with an initial survey. Experts in early childhood education, basic education and refugee guidance were asked to describe the current operating methods, challenges and identified development needs related to dealing with immigrants. Through the initial survey, we identified five themes with the highest development needs,” says Taskmill’s Elina Jolma.
Co-creation brought professionals from different municipalities together
“We set out to build an innovation day around these five themes, because they were associated with the greatest development needs when it came to meeting immigrant families. During the innovation day, we also wanted to put an emphasis on networking between municipalities and the promotion of multi-professional cooperation, and this was realized nicely. About 30 people from four different municipalities participated in the day,” says Elina Vettenranta, project manager of the Aito project.
During the innovation workshop, professionals from early childhood education, basic education and refugee services worked in five cross-functional groups. Each group developed solutions around the five identified themes.
The workshop generated a wide range of ideas. At the same time, participants built new connections and shared best practices across municipalities, which was one of the key goals of the day.
Facilitated ideation generated dozens of new solutions
“After the ideation phase, the groups could choose the two most important ideas from each theme, which we set out to apply on a more concrete level. The participants were asked to think about how the idea would affect encountering of immigrant families and what kind of value the idea would bring to the encounter. In addition, we weighed the feasibility of the ideas. During the group work, you could feel a palpable enthusiasm and liveliness”, says Elina Jolma.
The best ideas were developed into concrete concepts
The innovation workshop resulted in dozens of new ideas and around ten concepts that were selected for further development. It also strengthened networking, collaboration and the exchange of best practices between municipalities.
“As a result of the innovation day, we came up with dozens of new ideas and, in addition to these, ten epics that were taken further. The innovation day was successful. The facilitator was familiar with the topic, helped the day progress naturally and everything happened on schedule. The participants also gave good feedback about the day. It has been easy and natural to work with Taskmill. I have been able to trust that everything will go as agreed. Our cooperation continues even after the innovation day”, says Elina Vettenranta.