Creative Communities and Enabling Systems: Social Innovation in a low-income context. The case of a low-income community in southern Brazil Graúdo, Margarida*; Trez, Guilherme** * Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, margarida.graudo@ig.com.br **Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, guilhermetrez@gmail.com Abstract: Spontaneously, people come together for mutual interests and start processes in the pursuit and implementation of solutions that facilitate access or create resources to improve their living conditions. Consequently, they share knowledge, skills and attitudes to bring adequate responses to the faced situations. This collective and collaborative manner known as Creative Community promotes changes, creating what is new and valuable to its context, enabling systems for Social Innovation. Creative communities were identified in contexts of rapid change and consolidated industrial economy, with an advanced position in the knowledge-based economy. Through the recombination of existing resources and without expecting radical changes in economic, political or infrastructural systems, they employ creativity and bring innovative daily solutions. Creativity and problem solving are part of human nature, so everyone is able to take the capabilities of design and its strategic look, to organize and make the contextual data understandable in a perceptual and visual way toward a sustainable future. Brazil is experiencing a historic moment with millions of people rising out of poverty. However, there is still one third of vulnerable Brazilians occupying the base of the social pyramid despite the economic advances. The Brazilian context presents two different and challenging realities: an emerging market with its needs and desires to be met and a developing country that still faces adverse situations, both occurring in a more dynamic and complex world. The decision was to investigate a micro universe of low income and focus on the case of a handicraft group consisting of women from the south of Porto Alegre, which had just come together in a joint venture. An ethnographic-inspired qualitative research was applied, considering participant observation, in-depth interviews, meetings and a workshop following Strategic Design ’s guidelines. It was found out that the existence or the characteristics of creative communities were dormant and the methods applied enabled and encouraged creative initiatives of the group. This paper describes the steps taken into awakening creativity in the group and shows how the concepts of creative communities and enabling systems go through different aspects of those developed contexts and how they need to rescue trust, dignity and self-esteem of those involved. Keywords: Strategic Design; Innovation; Creative Communities; Enabling Systems; Low Income. 1.Introduction Through innovation, an organization creates something new and valuable, bringing competitive advantage to the context in which it operates. In a world where the population reaches almost seven billion people, and the