Design for Change

Design for Change is a global movement that cultivates the 'I CAN' belief in every child.

We are offering the world a magic formula! A simple four step framework to make every child graduate with the I CAN mindset – not by chance – by design! We call this magic formula - FIDS for KIDS! FEEL – empathy – nurture the heart. IMAGINE- ethics – grow the head. DO – excellence – use the hands collaborative action and agency. SHARE – elevation – inspire hope – I can , now you can too!

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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

Web presence

2009

Established

2M

Children

63

Countries

Target group

Students upper

Updated

April 2024

We have received more than 40,000 stories of change, impacting over 2 million children from 30552 schools. A total of 111897 teachers have participated from 71 countries.

About the innovation

What is Design for Change?

Design for Changefirmlybelieves that all children have the ingredients to "be the change".

The vision of Design for Change is toensure, by design,thatall children grow with the“I can” mindset – the belief that they are not helpless, change is possible and they can drive it.

Every child has the right to express their views on matters that affectthemand to have those views considered. Education systems have an opportunity to develop each child’s personality and talents to the full, to encourage the child’s respect for human rights, their own and other cultures,and the environment. In short, children should be empowered to be active citizens, able to make a change in the world. Academic competence and character development are the two most valued outcomes, for both educators and the public, yet the prevalence of standardized testing shows that academic competence is increasingly prioritized, leaving a lack of opportunity for a child to develop their unique personality and talents and to have their voice heard.

Since 2009, Design for Change has empowered children to be active change-makers in their communities. The goal is to create a learning environment that balances academic attainment with character development, focusing on passion and compassion, content and character, doing well and doing good. Design for Change is completely decentralized – the ideas for projects will come from the schools and communities themselves. This means any school around the world can adopt the key principles and utilize the method to suit their unique context and particular needs.

The four-step Feel, Imagine, Do, Share process used by Design for Change leads students to understand situations empathetically, imagine creative solutions and work collaboratively to put those solutions into action. The approach builds employability skills, such as empathy, collaboration, leadership, presentation. Through taking control of their own learning, children are able to unlock skills they didn’t even know they had. A 28% increase in overall grades and 39% increase of performance in standardized testing have been evidenced. In addition to academic improvements, teachers see their students become empowered, and are able to shift their practice from teacher to facilitator, as children become the driving force in their own education.

Design for Change organizes an annual global conference, Be The Change, to allow young superheroes from across the world to showcase their stories of change and to inspire others with their determination and courage.

Design for Change has received much recognition for their work and have won 8 awards to date, including recently:

2023 – Riverside wins the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation from T4 Education

Design For Change (DFC) movement (Silver Winner by Reimagine Education in 2020 under K12,

Lego Reimagine Learning Award,2015;

1st place Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards, 2015;

INDEX Design to Improve Life Award, 2011) and continues to be in top 100 educational

programs around the world recognised by HundrED.org.To

Please watch out event glimpses: https://youtu.be/6eWA0ZPbGIk

Here is some explainer videos on FIDS (FEEL, IMAGINE, DO, SHARE):

1. FEEL: https://youtu.be/XKEFMBF0QbA

2. IMAGINE: https://youtu.be/jxsPoy5Sm8A

3. DO: https://youtu.be/pEd90FlQypw

4. SHARE: https://youtu.be/jeGLsYsHyko

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Research conducted by The GoodWork Project has reaffirmed the impact of the FIDS approach on the development of skills like collaboration, creative thinking and empathy. Design for Change partners with other organizations to bring the programme to as many children as possible.

HundrED Academy Reviews

Love the focus on creative confidence! I also think they have taken on designing their own creative process model. The age range and scale appears ready to scale into other countries and contexts already.

Already widely scaled. Development of creativity is inherent Design for Change is a global movement to the work.

- Academy member

Academy review results

Impact

Scalability

Exceptional

High

Moderate

Limited

Insufficient

Exceptional

High

Moderate

Limited

Insufficient

Implementation steps

Feel

Learners take a close look at their surroundings, identify a problem they feel strongly about and engage with the community to scrutinize this situation through multiple perspectives, developing empathy in the process.

Think from the heart - the first step towards making change happen is trying to understand how people feel. Learners are encouraged to look attheir surroundings closely and observe things that bother them (hotspots).

Learners then share their observations with their team and vote as a group for one situation they would like to see change.

After selecting the issue, learners dig deeper to understand better by asking questions such as: when does it happen? Where does it happen? Who is being affected?

The next stage is to speak to people who are involved and affected by the situation, in orderto understand their concerns so that asolution can be designed with them rather than for them.

Imagine

Tap into the wildly creative optimism inherent in children to visualize an ideal scenario and brainstorm ways to achieve it.

Learners brainstorm potential solutions as a group. Theyare encouraged to think big and build upon the ideas of others. Key considerations are whether the solution is bold in nature, easy to replicate andlong-lasting while impacting the maximum number of people. The group then votes to decide which ideas best address each part of the situation they wantto change.

Young people get to step out of the classroom and put their ideas into action, redefining "failure" as "prototyping".

In this step, young people make change happen - this is where they can "be the change"!

First comes the planning stage, where learners will needto consider what resources theywill require, what their budget is, how they will raise the money, how many people will be required, how much time it will take and how their work will be documented. Within the group, the learners choose their roles and responsibilities, keeping individual strengths in mind.

Next, the plan will be put into action.

Finally, learners will reflect on their work, considering what they learnt about the situation, their teammates and themselves. It is also important to considerhow to sustain the impact of their project.

Learners are encouraged to share their stories with the world to enable other young people to say "I can!" too.

Stories can be sharedwith Design for Change atchallenge.dfcworld.com, where submission guidelines can also be found. Learners can submit either a photo story or a video story.

Going even further, young people are encouraged to spread the magic of their stories through school assemblies, TV and radio shows, social media, newspaper articles, and performances.