SYC has innovated throughout its history, very often through the informal process of our teams identifying a social need, exploring ways of addressing that need, co-designing programs and service delivery models with our clients and sector partners to test the thinking, measuring results and ultimately establishing a funding source. This is why we say that innovation is in SYC’s DNA. It has historically occurred at grass roots levels on a day to day basis. It is how we look at things, how we approach problem solving and how we create best practice services.

Our investment in measurement of outcomes and impact (as reported in our Impact Report 2017) has formalised and strengthened our approach to innovating. Collaborating with research partners in the scoping and development phases of program service design is crucial to ensuring that appropriate measurement and reporting is in place from the outset to fully evaluate the outcomes and impact of the new program.

We know that good innovation is about attitude and know-how as much as it is about the ability to come up with new ideas and new ways of doing things. The ability to translate a good idea into a sound service delivery model that can be executed commercially and at scale takes operational understanding and strategic expertise. But more than anything, good innovation is about the motivation. And SYC’s motivation is simply to develop better solutions that get better outcomes and create greater empowerment for the people we serve.

Excerpt from SYC’s Annual Report 2017/18