Innovation

Uniting housing collaborators for community-led solutions

Through our innovation practice, we help organizations navigate change, from launching new programs to creating new entities. Our team uses strategic foresight, human-centered design, and systems thinking to foster creativity and address the needs of the communities we serve.

Our Innovation Practice Services

Designing and facilitating end-to-end design processes

We design and lead end-to-end design processes to help our clients launch new housing, business, service, and program models. Using human-centred design and structured experimentation, we guide teams through research, ideation, prototyping, and implementation. As a recognized leader in this space, we facilitate labs through initiatives like the National Housing Strategy Solutions Lab program.

Using strategic foresight and social innovation

Drawing on strategic foresight and social innovation approaches, we help non-profit, charitable, and government organizations define their vision, set strategic directions, and create actionable plans for the future. Our strategic and business planning services align innovation with impact, ensuring that social purpose organizations are equipped to navigate change, seize opportunities, and achieve long-term sustainability.

A human-centred approach

We take a human-centred approach to designing programs and services that effectively meet community needs. We guide housing and social services organizations to design new programs and services that are impactful and scalable, enhancing service delivery and outcomes by applying research, co-design methods, and prototyping.

Improving decision-making, accountability, and resilience

We support organizations in designing and evaluating their organizational and governance models, strengthening structures that improve decision-making, accountability, and resilience. Our work ensures alignment with best practices, legislative and regulatory requirements, and organizational goals.

Transforming complex systems

Our systemic design work helps governments and social purpose organizations transform complex social service systems by identifying root causes, mapping interconnections, and drawing out recommendations for change and improvement. This work spans Canada’s housing, economic, political, and socio-economic systems.

Engaging, inclusive facilitation

We design and lead engaging, results-oriented facilitation processes that drive collaboration, alignment, and action. Our facilitation expertise helps organizations navigate complex discussions, build consensus, and unlock innovative solutions. We believe in the power of co-creation, designing creative, empathy-driven engagements with people with lived experience of housing precarity, homelessness, and poverty.

Success stories

Rethinking Housing: A New Path to Stability and Ownership

The Housing Journeys Reimagined Solutions Lab, led by Blue Door in partnership with Habitat for Humanity GTA and SHS, challenged traditional housing pathways by exploring innovative models that provide vulnerable populations with access to homeownership benefits.

By rethinking governance, finance, and service models, the Lab developed an approach that fosters equity-building opportunities and long-term housing security.

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Shaping the Future of Community Housing in Ontario

The Community Housing for the Future Solutions Lab, led by ONPHA in collaboration with SHS, brought together key stakeholders to address urgent funding challenges and reimagine a resilient community housing system.

Through a series of workshops and strategic foresight methodologies, participants built a collective vision for 2051, identifying barriers, opportunities, and actionable steps toward a sustainable housing future in Ontario.

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Building the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust

The Power of Land Trusts in African Nova Scotian Communities Solutions Lab, led by the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust (UHPCLT) in partnership with SHS and CMHC, examined the potential of land trusts to strengthen historically African Nova Scotian communities.

Through a collaborative design process involving over 80 participants, the Lab established governance models, membership frameworks, and land access strategies, creating a foundation for economic prosperity and community-led development.

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