Building capabilities
Change starts with supporting people to learn and lead. At the heart of Design for Life is the commitment to build the skills, connections and confidence people need to fulfil their potential.
Design for Life
Design for Life Our mission
Economic, social and environmental crises have placed our world in a fragile, unbalanced and degenerative state.
Our mission is to enable people, places and the planet to flourish in harmony.
Our vision is for a world where everyone can fulfil their potential and contribute to more resilient, rebalanced and regenerative futures.
How are we achieving this?
We believe everyone has the potential and creativity to effect change.
We work with people throughout their lives, and across society, to achieve regenerative impact; from children and young people to entrepreneurs, businesses and communities.
Our approach to change involves many different disciplines and perspectives.
Our work focuses on three areas. These are:
Growing hubs
People effect change by coming together. Design for Life grows the connections that organisations, communities, industries and regions need in order to flourish.
Developing infrastructure
We are aiming for systemic, long-term change. Design for Life develops and influences the conditions needed to enable people, communities and organisations to regenerate our world.
Discover more about Design for Life in this series of introductory blogs
Why us?
We are unique. We don’t just generate ideas; we act on them. The RSA has been turning world-leading ideas into world-changing actions for more than 260 years. Our research and innovation has changed the hearts and minds of generations of people. Central to all our work are our mission-aligned Fellows; a global network of innovators and changemakers.
Explore our Circle community to engage with our work.
Engage with our Design for Life mission
Are you a Fellow? Be part of our Circle community and help us shape a world where everyone can fulfil their potential and contribute to more resilient, rebalanced, and regenerative futures.
RSA Fellowship
The RSA Fellowship is a global network of changemakers enabling people, places and the planet to flourish in harmony. RSA Fellows have been at the forefront of significant social impact for over 260 years. We invite you to be part of this change.
Watch a Design for Life event
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Design for Life: Playful Green Planet
Fellowship events / Design for Life series
The Coffee House (RSA House) and Online via Zoom
Playful Green Planet aims to transform how children foster a connection to nature and community through creative outdoor play. Join us to hear about the journey to date, and hear about examples in action from Penny Hay FRSA (Professor of Imagination at Bath Spa University), and Sam Kendall (Education Manager at the Eden Project).
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RSA Cornwall: Arts and nature in education
Fellowship events
White Hart Hotel, St Austell, Cornwall PL25 4AT
Join Fellows in St Austell to hear more about our Playful Green Planet initiative for arts and nature in education that we are working on with the Eden Project.
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Design for Life Awards: reimagining regenerative education and enterprise
Fellowship events / Online
The Coffee House (RSA House) and Online via Zoom
In 2024 the RSA celebrates 100 years of the Student Design Awards and a decade of the Pupil Design Awards and the Catalyst Enterprise Awards. Looking at what the world needs in the next 100 years, Anna Markland will share drafts of the new Design for Life Awards offer.
Design for Life related content
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We are ‘all responsible for our precious planet Earth’ says new RSA medal winner
Press release
Today, Schumacher College and its founder Satish Kumar have been presented with the 2023 RSA Bicentenary Medal in recognition of their outstanding contribution to education and the environment.
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Leading for a brighter urban future
Blog
Joan Munro
UK Urban Futures Commission Leadership Researcher Joan Munro discusses how long-term government support could help council leaders and their partners move further and faster.
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Pupil Design Awards 2022-23: final evaluation report
Report
Aidan Daly
This evaluation illustrates how the Pupil Design Awards contributes to the pupils' creative self-efficacy, awareness of real-world issues and pupil and teachers' design capability, as well as the critical factors supporting teachers to complete projects and how we can make the awards more inclusive.