ThirdStory is your trusted partner for innovation and change.
We collaborate with communities, government and others to develop, grow and scale new possibilities. Together, we help shift systems across a range of education, health and social settings and bring about the changes our communities need.
With operations in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Caribbean, our approach is informed by two decades of partnerships and projects in local and international contexts.
People powered.
We believe the biggest shift is most likely to happen when we listen and learn from how people interact with multiple systems throughout their life.
Curious.
We back the natural curiosity that emerges when people with different experiences get the opportunity to work together.
Courageous.
We stand up for the more challenging ideas that need support to take flight.
We are…
The first story involves gathering what needs to be acknowledged from the past, the present and into our future.
The second story illuminates the potential for equity, self-determination and change.
We bring people together to create the third story; shaping ideas that set us up for a better, fairer future.
The third story is where the possibilities lie.
Our history
You might have once known us as Innovation Unit Australia New Zealand.
For over 20 years, Innovation Unit has worked to create change in social policy and practice by supporting and enabling place-based innovation in the UK and beyond. Its success led to the establishment of Innovation Unit Australia in 2015, and in 2017 it merged with social innovation not-profit Innovate Change in Aotearoa New Zealand and became Innovation Unit Australia New Zealand.
Since then, teams from the UK and Australia New Zealand have collaborated closely together on projects including the collaborative design of a new public schooling system in Bermuda, the co-design of family and domestic violence refuges for women and children in Western Australia, and harnessing technologies to improve learning outcomes for young people in sub-saharan Africa. These and other joint projects remain a strong chapter in our shared history, and our interest in enabling change in human and social systems continues to be deeply shared in all the places we work.
After 10 years of partnership, we are embracing a new name and identity, and separating from our Innovation Unit Ltd friends in the UK so that each of us can flourish in a rapidly changing world. But our separation doesn't mean saying goodbye.
Instead, we are opening up the potential for a new way to collaborate, partner and grow. This means we can develop our offer to our clients, partners and communities in a way that is fresh and true to who they are, where they are and what they need.
We know that as ThirdStory and Innovation Unit Ltd we can continue to create the changes needed with approaches that are deeply connected to each place and community we work in.
Self-determination
Honoring the right of people to actively choose the direction of their lives, the lives of their family and their communities. It requires challenging systems and structures that cause harm and limit potential, particularly and most acutely, for First Nations peoples.
Trust and community
Valuing relationships, connection and community as some of the most important factors in a good life, helping to restore trust between people, communities, organisations and government.
We strive for systemic change and action that aims to bring about:
Equity and justice
Addressing inequities and rethinking systems so that they give all people and communities a better chance at the lives they aspire to.
Regeneration and healing
Renewing the things that used to keep us sustained. Supporting healing of past and current traumas and harm. Developing solutions that sustain and nourish people and place now and into the future.
