LauraMalan

Ideas to Action aimed to find new ways to overcome inequalities in physical activity, which persisted, or even worsened, through the Covid-19 pandemic. We brought together organisations with great ideas or existing work related to getting communities to be more active.  Organisations that took part in the programme worked closely with design experts to further develop their ideas, projects, products or services.

The programme was delivered by  the Design Council and supported by Sport England with funding from the National Lottery, with a mission to use design tools and methods to reduce inequalities in physical activity. The programme was about these teams doing things differently: working together and designing new solutions – based on what people want and need – to encourage people to become more active.  

Using the Design Council’s Framework for Innovation and the Double Diamond process, the programme supported teams to further explore the needs and wants of  the users or participants they engage, and place them at the heart of the decisions made about the services, products, programmes or places they were designing. The programme also developed key skills and capabilities to embed new ways of working across the sector.  

Two cohorts built their skills and capabilities through a series of online masterclasses, workshops, campfire sharing sessions and one-to-one coaching calls over the course of one 6-month programme and another 4-month programme. 

Resources were also made available to the public through a microsite including a resource hub, a public webinar with inspirational talks from four Design Council Experts, sixty free one-hour coaching calls were available and a podcast series was created with the community innovation teams.