Innovating for Impact: Design Thinking for Changemakers [Online Workshop]

Design creative, community-driven solutions to complex problems

This interactive workshop introduces design thinking as a structured yet flexible approach to developing social impact initiatives that are grounded in lived experience and responsive to complexity. Drawing on human-centred design principles, the session explores how changemakers can move beyond assumptions and solutionism to design interventions that are both ethically grounded and practically viable.

Participants will engage with real-world social impact contexts and guided design activities to examine how problems are framed, whose perspectives are centred, and how ideas can be iteratively developed in collaboration with communities and stakeholders.

By the end of the workshop, participants will:

• Understand the core stages of the human-centred design process and how they apply in social and community-based contexts
• Gain practical tools for exploring root causes, generating insights, and prototyping early-stage solutions
• Develop greater confidence in co-designing initiatives that are inclusive, adaptive, and impact-oriented