Turn Empathy Into Action

Join other educators helping over 1 million young people worldwide
positively impact their communities.

Looking for ways to help during COVID-19? Take The DoGoodFromHomeChallenge

Supporters of Design for Change Global and DFC USA...

Activate your students to take action on social causes.

Connect students to social causes through podcasts and
activities that support them to do real projects in their communities.

91%

of teachers surveyed report that Design for Change increased students' self-motivation to complete tasks and persist through obstacles.

Different Paths for Engaging

Your students learn about a social cause through our high quality podcasts.
You then engage them on 3 different paths:

EMPATHY WARMUPS

A quick way to get engaged with a specific social cause and for your students to think critically about it.

Time Commitment:
1 hour total
(in classroom)

Learn more

DESIGN SPRINTS

Brief classroom activities that build empathy around a social issue and introduce design thinking concepts.

Time Commitment:
5 hours total
(in classroom)

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COMMUNITY ACTION

Lesson plans that take your students into the community to discover issues they care about and do something about them.

Time Commitment:
10+ hours
(in and out of classroom)

Learn more

We use a 4 step design framework to engage students to change their community and themselves:

Feel

Build Empathy

Imagine

Brainstorm Ideas

Do

Implement Solutions

Inspire Others

Design for Change...

Combines design thinking and doing good
Includes a library of podcasts aligned to the UN Global Goals
Is flexible and responsive to your context and can fit into in-school, after-school or outside of school environments
Results in the development of key 21st Century skills including empathy, creativity, resourcefulness and collaboration
Ready to start? See how it works

Need to see it in action?

Thousands of organizations are using Design for Change today... here are just a few:

SEE REAL PROJECTS

Latest News & Updates

What do educators think?

I love that my students learned to listen to each other better. They learned to share ideas, carefully critique each other and move forward. It was incredible and I hope they retain these communication and respect qualities for a lifetime.

Charlene Hitchcock

2nd Gr. Teacher

Washington Elementary School, Sandpoint, ID

At the end of this project, my students were saying things like, "I feel like I can do anything now!", "I want to be a designer!" and, "I never thought I could do this, but I did it and it feels so great!"... things I never imagined I would hear."

Dana Kinel

Design Technology Teacher

Sunset Ridge Middle School, Hartford, CT

They never wanted to miss a day from the project. They gave up their free time to do more than they had to. They were thinking critically and problem solving. They made a difference in our school community.