About Action Lab

The Action Lab is a social enterprise of Skills Society; an internationally recognized leader in social innovation and one of the largest disability service organizations in Edmonton. With help from Manasc Isaac Architects the space was designed for hosting inspiring events, group collaboration, strategy sessions and social innovation. There isn’t anything quite like the Action Lab in western Canada. The Action Lab experience promotes creative problem solving, offers tools to help tap into collective wisdom and helps people prototype solutions to challenges they are working on.

Revenue from the Action Lab supports the employment of people with disabilities, innovative social change initiatives of Skills Society and subsidizes community groups who can’t afford the full fee.

Check out Articles in the News and Videos of the Keynote Speeches at the launch of Action Lab with Mayor Iveson and MLA David Shepherd, Tim Draimin, Mark Cabaj and Guests

Scroll down for more info or download the full brochure

Fill Out The Form In This Link To Book The Lab

The Action Lab Stands On Three Pillars

1. THE SPACE: Edmonton’s most unique venue that you can rent for private events, workshops, meetings, strategic planning and more engaging collaboration.
2. WORKSHOPS: Various workshops offered throughout the year and if you need facilitation we also have a network of amazing people who can design and facilitate sessions to suit your needs.
3. SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB: Stewardship of three-month to multi year deep dives to navigate complex social issues and co-design solutions with community.

“For social innovation labs to be effective they need:

• The right stewardship, which Skills Society has experience with through their Citizen Action Lab approach.
• The space and tools that elicit fresh thinking, collaboration, creative problem solving and building solutions as a collective.
• Access to the most promising practices emerging in the national and international community of social labs, which Ben Weinlick and Skills Society have been pro-active in developing.”

Tim Draimin, Social Innovation Generation (National)

Pillar 1: THE SPACE

Edmonton’s most unique venue that you can rent for private events, workshops, meetings, strategic planning and more engaging collaboration.

When you rent the Action Lab, you are doing more than just renting an amazing space. A portion of the rental fee provides employment for people with disabilities who help coordinate Action Lab events and subsidizes community groups who are not able to afford the full fee.

Pillar 2: WORKSHOPS

Various workshops offered throughout the year and if you need facilitation we also have a network of amazing people who can design and facilitate sessions to suit your needs.

Facilitation

We have a network of people with expertise in guiding visioning, strategic planning, world cafes, human centered service design thinking, and creative problem solving. In addition, a member of the Action Lab team is one of the few people in western Canada certified to guide LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® strategy sessions.

Workshops

We offer community workshops throughout the year that anyone is welcome to attend:

• Culture and tools of social innovation
• Human Centered Service Design Thinking
• Collective Impact
• Diverse and vibrant workplaces
• Supporting the engaged citizenship of people with disabilities
• LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
• Being, Belonging, Becoming: Supporting Quality of Life

Pillar 3: SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB

Stewardship of three-month  to multi year deep dive processes to navigate complex social issues and co-design solutions with community.

We are part of a social innovation ecosystem in Canada that is engaging in collective impact, Human-Centered Design Thinking and Change Lab processes to tackle complex social challenges. A social innovation lab is a collaborative approach to navigating complexity that has a bias towards action and designing practical prototyped solutions alongside the people that are affected by an issue. Over the last five years Skills Society has invested in learning about and stewarding social innovation labs. Recently our leadership of a change lab focused on increasing the inclusion and citizenship experience of people with disabilities was recognized nationally and in the Stanford Social Innovation Review magazine.

One of our deep dives is currently underway in partnership with the Edmonton Community Foundation. Called the Edmonton Shift Lab, we are helping steward a community exploration of ways to address the intersection of racism and poverty in Edmonton. More info on the website here

What happens during a three-month to multi year deep dive?

• Convening diverse group of citizen explorers, policy makers, government champions, designers, journalists and academics
• On the ground research and sense making of an issue with community
• Identifying assumptions, needs, root causes
• Prototyping solutions, services, innovations
• Testing prototypes, getting feedback, iterating, refining
• Proposals of implementation of social innovation(s)

For information about deep dive innovation labs :

Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation

rebeccar@skillssociety.ca | 780-496-9686

Learn what a social innovation lab looks like in action.