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.
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.
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:
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.
People effect change by coming together. Design for Life grows the connections that organisations, communities, industries and regions need in order to flourish.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fellowship events / Design for Life series
The Coffee House (RSA House) and Online via Zoom
In the 19th century, the RSA invented the modern exam. Now we're championing a 21st century innovation to validate the skills and capabilities that exams miss. Tom Kenyon (Head of Enterprise Design) will share our work with Badge Nation on recognising the skills that aren’t well captured by exams.
Fellowship events / Design for Life series
The Coffee House (RSA House) and Online via Zoom
At this event, RSA staff will share learnings from the design and testing of our Outcomes Framework: an overarching evaluation tool that describes how our work across the organisation - from programmes to Fellowship to events - leads to regenerative impact, and how we measure this.
Fellowship events
Online
Our Fellowship is diverse and constantly evolving – if you are committed to a future that works for everyone, perhaps you should consider becoming a Fellow.
Press release
The RSA, together with leaders from across government, civil society and the creative industries, finalise bold new ideas for the North of England’s creative industries, to be revealed in full at the Convention of the North on 29 February.
Blog
Rebecca Ford Alessandra Tombazzi Penny Hay
Our Playful green planet team summarises a ‘lunch and learn’ at RSA House that focused on how the influence of nature can benefit a child’s development.
Blog
Andy Haldane
Social connectivity was a theme of the 695th Lord Mayor's Lecture Series. In it, our CEO, Andy Haldane, explored the role of social capital and connectivity in nurturing health, wealth and happiness, among other things.