Social Innovations Awards 1996

Poole Hospital, a flagship hospital

The main Social Innovations Award for 1996 (and £1,000
in awards money) goes to Poole Hospital, a flagship NHS hospital and a
yardstick for others to be measured against. Poole Hospital is the first
in the UK to affiliate to the Planetree organisation in the States, developing
a philosophy of 'patient-centred care', whilst also 'caring for the carers'.
This involves, for instance, a homely and less threatening atmosphere and
design, en suite accommodation, patients and families being allowed access
to ward kitchens, cushion bench settees for visitors (which can become
beds if required), massage for staff and for patients, a resource centre
providing full medical information on particular conditions and a healing
garden in the courtyard. Planetree in the States has 22 affiliated hospitals
and was started by a San Francisco patient who hated a hospital where she
had been put in a bare room, just a bed and a metal chair, with staff "who
ignored me, except to come in and draw blood - and never the same person"
. See page 116 in
the 1996 book DIY Futures (the print version of which is detailed
below but which is also accessible online).

Alternative Institutions e-mail list

The Web Social Innovations Award 1996, for the Internet location
with the most interesting content, goes to the 'AltInst' e-mail list on
the subject of Alternative Institutions, started and moderated by Robin
Hanson. Its 1,000+ page archive of past messages covers "alternative
ways to run conversations, countries, households, markets, offices, romances,
schools", with a series of fascinating, high quality debates, often
on imaginative proposals put forward by Robin Hanson. Past topics include:
paying to jump the queue at films and stores; buying life insurance from
your Health Maintenance Organisation (so that those caring for your health
have an interest in preventing you becoming ill); a way of rating and filtering
online messages; how to make finding Web criticism easier; a cunning way
to balance the budget; and declared strategy voting to avoid 'wasted votes'.
Robin Hanson introduces the list as being for those who are "truly
excited to hear about creative well-considered suggestions". See page 279 for
details.

Teaching babies to sing

The Education Social Innovations Award 1996 goes to Barbara Young
in Ealing who runs weekly music classes for newborn babies. "Babies
can sing before they talk," she says. "But this fact is not widely
know. Every baby is musical." For one-year-olds, Young will withdraw
one note from a melody then another, enti-cing the babies to vocalise "in
perfect pitch and rhythm". See page 15 for details.

Prisoners earning money for victims

The Crime Social Innovations Award 1996 goes to Talmage Powell,
an American journalist, for his booklet Crime ... Victims ... The
Solution
Alexander Books) and its suggestion that 60% of any money earned by a prisoner
should go to a fund to pay victims of crimes. The Award judges commended
this aspect of Powell's concept whilst expressing reservations about other
aspects. See page
86 for details.

Green Miles for public transport

The Transport Social Innovations Award 1996 goes to Barbara Lockie
for her proposal for Green Miles, to be given away with products and services
as are Air Miles, but usable only on public transport. See page 188 for
details.

The Citizen Organising Foundation

The Political Social Innovations Award 1996 goes to The Citizen
Organising Foundation, based in London, which has involved about 60,000
volunteers in campaigning for social improvements at the neighbourhood
level - everything from forcing local councils to clear illegal tips to
altering policing tactics. See page 130 for
details.

The Future Centre in Barbados

The Futures Social Innovations Award 1996 goes to the proposed
Futures Centre in Barbados, initiated by Dr Colin Hudson, which will have:
exhibits on everything from agriculture to waste management; tree houses
for children; an ice rink doubling as a cooling mechanism; and a supermarket
with minimally packaged goods. See page 154 for
details.

These Awards were announced on September 1st '96 by the Institute for Social
Inventions (6 Blackstock Mews, Blackstock Road, London N4 2BT, tel 020 7359
8391; fax 020 7354 3831; e-mail: rhino@dial.pipex.com;
internet: http://www.globalideasbank.org/

These and 288 pages of other imaginative ideas and projects are in the new
book published September 1996 by the Institute for Social Inventions
entitled:

DIY FUTURES

- People's Ideas & Projects for a Better
World

Edited by

Nicholas Albery Lindesay Irvine Philip Buckley & Stephanie
Pieau

Cover illustration by Brian Eno