The ACSI initiative addresses social inclusion challenges in five participating cities: Athens, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rotterdam, and Stockholm, by identifying and implementing proven innovations tailored to local contexts. It focuses on enhancing opportunities for children at risk, improving employment pathways for youth, and supporting long-term unemployed individuals, including refugees and migrants. The project aims to document the learning process and share best practices, culminating in the implementation of selected innovations and knowledge transfer among cities.

1. ACSI Executive Summary
June 2017

2. THE NEED
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 2
➔ The search for more effective and efficient solutions has
become a priority in the social agenda of many cities.
➔ Best practices remain unknown or find difficulties in
replicating outcomes.
➔ There is a general problem of scale in interventions directed
to social inclusion: many problems are much larger than
current responses.

3. A RESPONSE
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 3
➔ Demand-driven process of identification of proven
innovations to resolve important social challenges that are
shared by participating cities.
➔ A process focused at successfully adapting and
implementing proven innovations by the City Council or by
other local actors committed to social inclusion.
➔ Documenting the process to capture the learning of sharing
relevant information about proven interventions and ways to
adapt them to different contexts.

4. THE INITIATIVE
5 cities join efforts to address 3 common social challenges
§ ATHENS
§ BARCELONA
§ LISBON
§ ROTTERDAM
§ STOCKHOLM
§ Other cities are invited to participate in the research of proven innovations,
and eventually, in selecting and implementing the most appropriate to their local contexts.
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 4
➔ How to maximise opportunities for children at risk of exclusion?
➔ How to build better employment opportunities and pathways for young
people?
➔ How to generate opportunities for the long-term unemployed?
* Refugees and migrants are explicitly mentioned as part of the targeted.

5. OVERVIEW: PROCESS AND CALENDAR
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 5
Apr - Des 17
3. PACKAGING
AND
PRESENTATION
1. DESIGN 3
COMMON
CHALLENGES
6. EVALUATION5. ADAPTATION
AND IMPLEMEN-
TATION
4. SELECTION
OF MOST
APPROPRIATE
Oct 16 – Jan 17Jul-Sep 2016
June 192 yearsFeb-Jun 2017
2. RESEARCH
OF PROVEN
INNOVATIONS
COMMON
CAPTUREANDSHARELEARNINGS
EACHCITY

6. OVERVIEW: OUTPUTS
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 6
Design of the
challenges
Research
Packaging and
presentation
Selection
Adaptation and
implementation
Evaluation
Cities define
problems to
address,
identifying the
levers of
change and
action areas
to search
proven
innovations.
Worldwide
research and
call for proven
innovations,
with emphasis
in Europe.
The cities
involved share
their best
practices.
Showcases of
the best proven
innovations
to share with
others cities the
generated
knowledge.
Presentation
at Eurocities
event.
Each city
organise a jury
for each
challenge in
order to choose
the most
appropriate
innovations to
explore their
implementation.
Adaptation
model of the
innovations
selected to the
context of each
city.
Actions to
facilitate their
implementation.
Final evaluation
of the of the
process in each
city and the
outcomes of
the project.
Challenge
Briefs of
3 shared
challenges
20 showcases
of proven
innovations
per challenge
Showcases
of top
innovations
per challenge at
Eurocities event
3 jury meeting
per city,
between 3 to 9
innovations per
city
Selected
innovations get
implemented in
each city
Final report

7. EXPECTED OUTCOMES
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 7
➔ IN EVERY CITY PARTICIPANT
Social innovations implemented in each city,
and generating initial social outcomes for each challenge.
➔ KNOWLEDGE ON SOCIAL INNOVATION & SCALING
Knowledge about adapting and adopting best practices
shared with other cities.
Other cities access relevant information about evidence-
based interventions and explore their implementation.

8. THANKS!
ACCELERATING CHANGE FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION / ACSI 8
➔ ACSI
Catalysing the transfer of successful innovations among European cities.
Project implemented by UpSocial in collaboration with Partner Cities and
EUROCITIES, and with the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation
and “la Caixa” Foundation.
➔ PARTNER CITIES
Athens, Barcelona, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Stockholm.
➔ CONTACT
Miquel de Paladella: mdepaladella@upsocial.org
Viviana Urani: vaurani@upsocial.org
➔ www.upsocial.org