Every person deserves to live in a vibrant community, with opportunities to thrive in a flourishing natural environment. These are Prosperous Places.
Too often, however, where you were born determines where you end up, the trust you have that things can improve, and your ability to make changes.
Prosperous Places is a practical suite of programmes to respond to the unique ambitions and challenges of places.
Our programmes are not intended to provide solutions to every local problem. Rather, they are a set of innovative, targeted approaches designed to achieve three specific aims:
Each of these programmes is unique to the RSA, distinctive to place and designed in partnership with local leaders and residents.
We do this through our multidisciplinary team of researchers, designers and delivery specialists and by drawing on our network of over 31,000 global Fellows.
Our distinctive ‘nested systems’ philosophy means the approach is comprehensive, incorporating a combination of economic, social and natural perspectives.
Get in touch at partnerships@rsa.org.uk to explore how to unlock the potential in your community.
Our Prosperous Places interventions cover three areas.
Local Prosperity Plans are single, long-term, integrated strategic plans which, uniquely, deliver economic, social and environmental prosperity in a single package.
They use a blend of quantitative, qualitative and participatory research, subject matter expertise and community involvement, all while bringing investors to the table to provide funding.
Local plans can be super-charged if pursued pan-regionally through ‘Innovation Corridors’ – the connection of places through shared strategies, institutions and initiatives.
An example is One Creative North – an RSA-initiated partnership to super-charge the creative industries across the North of England.
As a neutral partner with centuries of history in bringing together government, business and civil society, the RSA is uniquely positioned to identify and nurture the Innovation Corridors of the future.
Our education and learning systems are failing. Their approach to learning is not fit for the 21st century, leaving many millions of young people and adults excluded.
We have developed a new system of learning pathways, from early years to entrepreneurs, which offer a new approach to learning – practical, experiential, creative – to nurture 21st century skills and re-engage those furthest from learning on a lifelong basis.
Playful Green Planet seeks to transform how children foster a connection to their community and surroundings through outdoor creative play.
Enabled and co-created by a movement of local citizens and coalitions, Playful Green Planet transforms unused green spaces into ecologically thriving outdoor playrooms and classrooms that grow children’s capabilities for climate action and social engagement.
RSA Spark offers learners and entrepreneurs inspiring real-world experiences to create, connect, grow and make a difference.
These experiences are designed to help everyone, everywhere, find their creativity, igniting ideas into action for a positive impact on the world. Participants will grow life skills and develop lifelong connections through real-world missions that matter.
RSA Spark will focus participants' energy on doing better for people, places and the planet, changing tomorrow for everyone.
We will be open for RSA Spark registrations in January 2025.
For post-16 learners who have not thrived in traditional settings, our Regions of Learning programme tackles head-on the challenges of economic inactivity, unemployment and skills shortages.
We work with local authorities and regions to accredit hidden capabilities and develop new skills tailored to the needs of local labour markets. Regions of Learning has already been successfully trialled in seven places.
The approach achieves results by connecting fragmented local learning strategies, a modular approach to learning with national partnerships, and awarding digital badges in recognition for skills development.
Connected Places is a practical approach to understanding and rebuilding social cohesion and connection in places.
It does so by using a unique, data-led approach to mapping an area’s social capital. Then, alongside residents, designing new social infrastructures to build greater cohesion and connectivity – repairing a frayed social fabric and improving life chances.
More information about this evolved intervention will be shared shortly. In the meantime, visit our Social Connections work for background behind this new intervention.
Press release
The RSA and the East Midlands Combined County Authority have launched the Inclusive Growth Commission, which will identify and action radical plans to unleash potential and supercharge prosperity in communities across the East Midlands.
Report
This Core City profiles report extends the RSA’s UK Urban Futures Commission report, Unleashing the potential of the UK’s cities, released in September 2023.
Report
Jolyon Miles-Wilson Hayley Sims Tom Stratton Bernard Hay Emily Hopkins
This report offers creative corridors as a mechanism for harnessing this growth. Our ambition is that creative corridors will stimulate economic growth by increasing linkages.
Design for Life supports people to learn and lead. We're unlocking the confidence, capabilities and connections of children, learners and entrepreneurs of all ages.
Design for Life develops and influences infrastructure at a system-wide level that people, communities and organisations need to drive regenerative change.
The RSA Fellowship is a unique global network of changemakers enabling people, places and the planet to flourish. We invite you to be part of this change.