TACSI - The Australian Centre for Social Innovation

TACSI strives to enhance social and economic well-being through their approach to accelerate social innovations. The organization has conducted experiments in the field of human-centered innovation, driven by the belief that individuals are the best experts on their own lives. By collaborating with those affected by the challenges they aim to address, TACSI creates effective innovations.

They have been building scaling programs that seek to improve outcomes for people in relevant and dynamic ways. As a case study, Regional innovation capability shows good tools of using the TACSI’s approach in social innovations from a regional perspective.

TACSI's approach of collaborating with those affected by the challenges they aim to address can help to increase public participation and engagement. By involving the community in the development of social innovation initiatives, TACSI is able to create more meaningful and effective solutions that better meet the needs of the community. The approach strengthens the social innovation skills and confidence of community workers, which can help to further increase public participation and engagement.

The approach can also help to improve representation of affected communities. By working with community innovators and innovations and helping them spread their learnings in their own communities and across the region, TACSI is able to develop regionally relevant social innovation resources and a voice for regional stories and examples. This can help to better represent and connect affected communities to existing elected officials and innovation ecosystems.

It can also help to address marginalization from innovation ecosystems. By working with community innovators and innovations in rural areas and other marginalized locations, TACSI is able to create opportunities for capability 'stretches' so that community workers can identify structural and systemic barriers and opportunities, and ways to influence these from a regional perspective. This can help to increase understanding of system actors and resources and create opportunities for bold change in marginalized communities.

TACSI's approach of working closely with networks to spread and adapt innovations to new environments can help to address scaling challenges. They are looking for innovators and innovations and working with them to not only grow their programs of social innovation but help them spread these learnings in their own communities and across the region, TACSI is able to develop regionally relevant social innovation resources and a voice for regional stories and examples. This can help to find people with a suitable set of skills and competences and deal with specific local challenges/contexts.

The objective of this approach is to empower individuals, teams, and organizations to develop people-centric policies, services, and solutions. Their initiatives bring together various actors in the social innovation ecosystem for long-term experimentation, often taking systemic approaches.

TACSI's focus on innovation spans from the idea phase to practical implementation, working closely with their networks to spread and adapt innovations to new environments. Furthermore, the organization strives to enhance understanding of how innovations can be applied in diverse contexts.

TACSI has identified six key areas of focus: the Future of Mental Health, Social R&D, People Powered Responses, Future of Home, Regenerative Communities, and Social Innovation Workforce. They have formed strategic partnerships with people, communities, philanthropic organizations, government entities, NGOs, and businesses to serve as capability builders, consultants, connectors, and facilitators.

The time frame for utilizing the TACSI method can vary depending on the specific project or initiative being pursued. The organization's approach to social innovation involves a continuous learning process, which means that it may take some time to develop and implement effective solutions. In general, TACSI's initiatives often take a long-term, systemic approach, which can require ongoing engagement and collaboration with stakeholders. Overall, the time frame for utilizing the TACSI method can be flexible.

1.      Identify the social challenge you want to address: Think about a specific problem that you want to solve in your community, such as inadequate public participation, inadequate representation of affected communities, marginalization from the innovation ecosystem, or scaling challenges.
2. Identify affected individuals or communities: Identify the individuals or communities that are affected by the challenge you want to address. TACSI's approach emphasizes working closely with those who are impacted by the challenge to create effective innovations.
3. Collaborate with affected individuals or communities: Work closely with those affected by the challenge to identify potential solutions. TACSI believes that individuals are the best experts on their own lives and advocates for involving the community in the development of social innovation initiatives.
4. Develop a people-centric approach: Develop a people-centric approach to addressing the challenge. TACSI focuses on empowering individuals, teams, and organizations to develop people-centric policies, services, and solutions.
5. Experiment: Use TACSI's approach to human-centered innovation to experiment with and iterate on potential solutions. TACSI emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and adaptation to create effective social innovations.
6. Build partnerships: Build partnerships with individuals, communities, philanthropic organizations, government entities, NGOs, and businesses to serve as capability builders, consultants, connectors, and facilitators. TACSI emphasizes the importance of working with others to create bold change in communities.
7. Scale and adapt: Work closely with networks to spread and adapt innovations to new environments. TACSI emphasizes the importance of working with networks to create regionally relevant social innovation resources and a voice for regional stories and examples.

In the Net Zero mission cities context this method can be really relevant, since city governance has to remember the larger ecosystem in the municipality. Cities have to build partnerships with organisations, individuals, communities and businesses to reach their mission. When pursuing an ambitious transition to climate neutrality, one needs to take account of the social challenges and work closely with the ones who are affected by the change. Cities also need to cooperate with the energy sector when pursuing net zero emissions. Each city can use this step-by-step process in their own context by first identifying their specific challenges and the best way to start tackling them in an experimental and inclusive approach

The method could be evaluated by following if building the connections and collaborations actually increase the wanted effect. In each specific context this would mean following the scaling and amount of innovations in the area and their implementation as policies. ​​​​​​​

All the relevant actors in the region need to be taken into account when pursuing net zero emissions. One part also being the social factors and taking into account the citizen perspective in making drastic changes in for example energy solutions.

​​​​​​​The TACSI method is contextual and focuses on Australian communities, but this method could also be implemented to a European context and to mission cities, since it is more of a methodological approach or a means to accomplish just transition with always keeping in mind the ecosystem behind the city. Since community-level approach on climate neutrality is needed, in this context the relevant actors in the region, such as municipality, local energy initiatives, energy provides, local businesses and residents, need to be considered