Hi all GeniUS York Community,

A quick update on the latest challenge following the Synergy Surgery: Creative Health event on June 8^th – June 9^th. The weekend long event took participants through inspirational talks and facilitated small group working before culminating in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style session where groups pitched for funding to take their idea to pilot stage. The GeniUS team are very pleased with the outcomes of the event and the potential for…

Creative England in partnership with NHS England launches a new initiative which will support development projects that use digital technology to give young people being treated for cancer and other life-limiting conditions the chance to explore their creative potential as a catalyst for healing and personal development, in collaboration with the Creative Skills For Life (CSL) Programme.

Creative England now invites…

There are spaces in communities that are safe and welcoming, that are free and open to everyone.  Spaces where communities can come together, spaces that are trusted by the public.  They have free wifi and free internet access

These are called public libraries and we have 15 of them in York, and 1 on wheels that travels around.

They all have trained staff who support people accessing information and services in life-critical areas such as careers and job seeking; health;…

Below is an example of what myself and the GeniUS team talked about at our meeting. It was presented at the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, held in London in April of this year.…

I am a senior doctor working in Emergency Medicine and I'm looking for solutions for some problems with the "system" that have been around for a long time:

1 The system does not encourage fairness of reponse to healthcare need. Eg If you are referred in to hospital by your GP or another healthcare practitioner, the expectation is that you would be referred directly to a specialist and that the provision your care would be more effective and efficient. In reality this occurs randomly…

Hi all, 



Just wanted to introduce myself, I'm Michael Storey the Community Manager for One&Other magazine based in York (www.oneandother.com) we're now able to dedicate more time to community-based activities and causes. 



We're supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and are planning on doing 4 to 6 projects throughout the year April 2013 - April…

ICiPS (Institute for continuous improvement in the public sector) would like your help. A number of member organisations have asked for our support to address the issue of children in care who run away. We are aware that research has already been undertaken into this so we are keen to hear from people working in this area as to why they feel the problem remains. 

As part of our #DementiaFriendly challenge the GeniUS!York team held a workshop on dementia at the Ron Cooke Hub at Heslington East University Campus. This took place last Wednesday and was facilitated by Heather Niven of SCY and Nada Savitch of Innovations in Dementia.



The aim of the workshop, which was open to anyone wishing to attend, was to open face to face discussions with people on the issues directly relating to our challenge which are:



What are the problems…

Help highlight great customer service at the council!

From now until 4 November, the Council are accepting nominations from the Public to identify individuals or teams you think have gone the extra mile to make sure you've got the information, advice or help you needed or who you think display…

Just a question to consider - where exactly do we submit these ideas and proposals? Is it in this blog in the form of a post, or does it need to take the form of a proposal with "Timelines and work breakdowns" "costings" etc as described by the Guidance Notes document. If it's the latter I have to say that even after reading that document I am still left feeling rather unclear as to the form proposals should take, and even less about where they should go, and I wonder if this is really the…

Hello. I am a first-time poster, but have been following the discussion with interest.

What I would like is to replicate the method and approach of Maggie's Centres, for people affected by dementia.

As you probably know, Maggie's Centres are open to anyone affected by cancer, whenever they need them. Their philosophy is ' empowering people to live with, through and beyond cancer ' so as 'not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying.'  

If one replaces the words…

And some ideas from the report as to how to engage the tourism industry in York and capture its benefits. ..



• York has a range of people who provide guided tours and way-finding

services for tourists. Their services can also assist people with dementia and it may be simple to improve their understanding of what people with dementia might need. A link with Torbay Dementia Action Alliance would be useful.



• Existing websites promoting hotels, B+Bs, restaurants and shops…

Another idea to come out of the York report: an annual ‘Slow-down Day’ (perhaps as part of the over-50s festival) with quiet and unhurried activities, and peaceful places for reflection and social contact.Any thoughts?

Since we launched GeniUS! York in January this year a lot has come out of the project and we wanted to share this with you and say thanks for your help in making this happen.  So far over the last 9 months:

• Winners of Living Labs Global Awards (LLGA) for Social Innovation, for a proposal to pilot GeniUS! in Cape Town, have been invited to pilot there over next year. 
• Shortlisted for Guardian Public Services Award for Community Engagement 2012.  Finals to take place in…

So where has all the information from challenges 1-4 gone? All we have now is a purged summary of the 'chosen' project, in the case of transport the somewhat offbeat greenwash idea that was put forward before any public involvment was invited. If you want to convince me otherwise perhaps you might put back online the information about cycle counters and shuttle bus that was also being explored further?

Challenge 1: What ways can underutilised CYC assets i.e. equipment, property, buildings and land, be exploited to benefit businesses, the community and the Council?

A business case was produced by members of the innovation team and a technological solution provider. This was to outline the costs associated with the production of an asset management system which would enable City of York Council to leverage best value from its assets, the management of such a system…

York is a wonderful City full of creative and imaginative people that I have seen grow fast over the past 6 years +.

With the new Collage that opened a year after I left the old one (studying my foundation in art) a Good Uni's and York is a huge tourist trap for all over the UK and the world. I feel that its creative potential as a City and…

It's been an intense 30 hours! Just back from Birmingham where a team of four of us went down to further develop our GeniUS York project and to share our experiences with the other 16 short listed councils on the NESTA Creative Councils project.

We got there at dinner time last night and met all the other council teams at the…