Design for Life: an introduction to our mission

Steven George, Head of Communications at the RSA, introduces our new mission and with it, lifts the curtain on the new Design for Life hub on our website.

The RSA. Where world-leading ideas are turned into world-changing action.

You will have noticed some significant changes to the RSA website.

Our aim is to make it easier for you to see what the RSA’s priorities are and to get involved with them yourself.

In keeping with our traditions, our ambitions are broad.

We aim to make difference to people throughout their lives.

We want to make change happen in communities of all types, in companies and organisations both large and small, and across systems on a national and international scale.

We can see that success will only come if we work simultaneously across social, economic, and environmental issues. Put simply...

Our mission is to enable people, places and the planet to flourish in harmony.

If someone asks you what the RSA is all about – this is your answer. You’ll see our mission repeated everywhere in our communications with you and with the outside world.

If you want an easy-to-use sentence to tell people what the RSA is trying to achieve, you need look no further than our vision statement.

Our vision is of a world where everyone can fulfil their potential and contribute to more resilient, rebalanced and regenerative futures.

That’s a big ask. We can’t do it alone, and we’re not going to try. For a start, our growing, international network of Fellows will be central to all that we do. We are creating new relationships with funders and organisations all the time. It’s about working together.

So when we’re talking about how we work, you’ll hear the following phrase a lot.

We do this by uniting people and ideas in collective action to unlock opportunities to regenerate our world.

We’ve organised our work into three areas, with the intent to make it easier for everyone who wants to partner with the RSA to get involved:

1. Building capabilities. We’ll help support people to gain the skills, connections and confidence they need to learn, lead and fulfil their potential.
2. Growing hubs. We’ll work across organisations, communities, industries and regions to design new ways for them to achieve regenerative impact together.
3. Developing infrastructure. We’ll share the knowledge needed to enable to people, communities and organisations to drive regenerative change in the long term.

Explore these areas of work below.

We call this work Design for Life. As a member of the RSA team, this feels like a truly inspiring mission to embark on.

If this feels like something you’d like to get on board with too, we’d love to hear from you.

If you have a couple of minutes, find out how to become a Fellow.

If you have a free hour, come to one of our events.

And if you think you can play an active role in our mission, there’s more depth to be found in the Design for Life area of our website.

Do you have any views or thoughts on our Design for Life mission? Are you excited about what positive change we can bring to people, place and planet? Are you working on something that aligns with Design for LIfe? Let us know in the comments below.