A new mission: Design for Life

The RSA is a unique global network of changemakers enabling people, places and the planet to flourish.

We were created by a similar group of people, with similar aims back in 1754, and now, as we approach our 270th anniversary, we are renewing that centuries-old mission.

Our new mission paper, Design for Life, and its accompanying programme of change, seeks to answer three questions. What if...

• all children, from their early years, were given chances to nurture their creativity and build a greater connection to the natural world?
• all entrepreneurs were given the support and connections they needed for their innovations to flourish and shape better futures?
• all business leaders were supported to transform their organisations to do more good?

Join us on our new mission as we work to give people the confidence, skills, ideas and connections to make a positive impact. We will unlock the potential in human, social and natural capital to achieve a more resilient, rebalanced, and regenerative future for all.

Design for Life focuses on the people and places whose opportunities are currently most constrained, whether at school, work or in communities.

Some of the best examples of transformative thinking happen when the insights from different fields are combined and applied to one another. That’s why the RSA focuses on uniting people and ideas.

By bringing together a diverse mix of people and expertise, we can transform the world’s economic, social and environmental systems.

Discover more about Design for Life by downloading the short overview.

The Design for Life programme introduces seven pathways that will define the RSA’s future change programme, these are:

Early years | Pupils | Students | Entrepreneurs | Places | Companies | Systems 

You can find out more about these pathways by downloading the full Design for Life paper below.

This is a staging post paper. It will set out our overall mission for the RSA, however, we leave the detailed design and delivery of the pathways to a co-creative process working with Fellows and partners. In time, each of the pathways will have a designated space as part of the RSA’s new digital platform to enable this co-creation.

At this point, we:

• Welcome comments on the paper to inform this process
• Welcome expressions of interest in participating in this co-creative process