In fact, the Colin and Shankill areas are among the most disadvantaged communities in Northern Ireland across a wide range of outcomes. This cannot and should not be ignored. However, these same disadvantages viewed in a different way reveal huge potential for improving outcomes with the children, young people and families living in these two communities.

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Working together we drive social innovation in the form of innovative evidence based programmes and practices that have considered not only what works, but also who it works for and if is appropriate for its context. It is also the case that our theoretically driven, evidence informed and methodologically rigorous approach creates social innovation that has both local relevance and scalable global appeal.

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Another benefit of interdependent goals is that it fosters co-operative learning and good relationships.  This is reinforced over time as we achieve more and more goals together. In fact, the length of community university collaborative relationships is consistently seen a key factor for successful social impact in the academic literature. The strength of our relationships provides an environment for our next principle, i.e., critical thinking. In order improve we need to challenge each other using data analysis, evaluation and community awareness to produce better impact of our research and practice. This is best done when relationships are long term and interdependent.

The final core principle is creativity. We foster creativity initially because we come from different perspectives as researchers, practitioners and community members. We enhance this further by ensuring we have interdisciplinary projects (e.g., education, health, arts)  as well as adding creative influences by connecting to a wide range of other partners both locally (e.g. Ulster Orchestra, Public Health Agency and National Museums NI) and globally (Institute for Life Course Health Research in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University and Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health).

We recognise that engagement with support is the one of the hardest thing to do with individuals in challenging circumstances. However, supports are often designed for those who are not in the hardest to reach circumstances. We think our long term partnership consisting of local knowledge an evidenced based methods maximises engagement because it understands what works, for who and in what circumstances.

Through supporting them we will engage all members of the community from, family, schools, health and community facilities through to the researchers, funders and policymakers that are looking to address disadvantage in Northern Ireland and beyond. Our vision is that these cumulative efforts in social innovation with children, young people and families will reach a tipping point where we can make a positive social impact throughout the whole community and their support systems. So not only will the outcomes of children, young people and families be improved but this democratic approach will result in upward growth of community wide outcomes such as community pride, achievement and community self-efficacy.