Storytelling is a powerful instrument for system change. Telling stories of lived experience, listening to them, and sharing them contributes to a culture of trust based on dignity, mutual respect and shared values. In this paper we draw attention to public service innovation and co-creation with the people the service is meant for. In the past years, public service innovation was result-and output driven, targeting technological and managerial innovation. Stories of service users revealed the unintended negative consequences of such innovation policies and opened new perspectives for conversations of change based on shared values leading to innovations based on human development and dignity.
The authors explain the innovative creation of a socially diverse neighbourhood called the ‘Green Sticht’ in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Inspired by the ideas of a charismatic activist preacher, the Green Sticht created an entirely new neighbourhood with an informal support system for socially vulnerable people, and thus circumvented the ‘not in my backyard’ sentiment present in the city. Residents who choose to move there out of idealism live alongside citizens who are formerly homeless, often with psychological and psychiatric problems. The Green Sticht has become financially self-reliant. It has never been fully replicated but has recently inspired two new projects, showing that it is possible to adapt combinations of the main elements and mechanisms that have made it successful and sustainable.
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