Empowering
Australia's Youth to Design a Better Future

Join the global movement giving children the ‘I CAN’ mindset to solve real-world problems in their communities.

Start Your DFC Journey
Watch How It Works
dfc Australia
DFC

The Design Thinking
Methodology

Design for Change (DFC) is a global educational movement originating from the design‑thinking principles pioneered by Kiran Bir Sethi, founder of Riverside School in India, together with Sandy Speicher, then at IDEO. Launched in 2009, DFC empowers children with a simple but transformative framework—Feel, Imagine, Do, Share (FIDS)—to cultivate a belief in their ability to create positive change.

FEEL - Discover & Connect

Students identify an issue that matters to them within their personal lives, school, or community—and empathise deeply with others impacted.

feel

IMAGINE - Dream & Design

Learners brainstorm solutions using divergent and convergent thinking, aiming for ideas that are bold, sustainable, easy to implement, and have maximum impact.

DO - Act & Transform

Children take ownership and execute their chosen solution. This phase builds planning skills, teamwork, accountability, perseverance, and real-world agency then they document their journey, capturing F.A.C.T.S (Feelings, Actions, Changes & Transformations)

SHARE - Inspire & Amplify

Participants reflect on the outcome and share their story through photos, videos, comic strips, presentations or digital submissions to inspire others and scale the movement.

Education should teach us that “We CAN”

— Kiran Bir Sethi
Founder of Design for Change

Our Commitment
To Change

We’re committed to growing an active, connected movement—uniting schools, educators, families, and communities in a shared mission to spark change across Australia.

Inclusive and Empowering

We embrace children from all backgrounds and strive to make every voice heard—ensuring that every child matters, regardless of where they come from.

Optimism and Action

Change starts when children realize they’re not helpless. Through FIDS, they learn they can make a difference, and that confidence fuels transformation.

Some of Our
Partners

design for change
bold park community school
"Design for Change is one of the most exciting and important educational programs I know of, with the potential to impact numerous countries around the world. Our first wave of studies documents clear improvements in student empathy, as well as challenges to improving problem-solving skills. DFC provides a valuable model for a wide range of educational innovations."
Dr. Howard Gardner
(Harvard Graduate School of Education)
"Design for Change helps teachers empower student leadership. Students, as well as teachers, grow as leaders using the DFC methodology. Their research has shown that cultivating these, and other 21st-century social skills and competencies (such as teamwork), in students has an impact on students' academic outcomes, develops critical character traits, and creates better employment skills for our students."
Wendy Kopp
Wendy Kopp
(CEO & Co-founder of Teach for All)
"At Bold Park we passionately believe in unleashing agency, empowering both individuals and groups to make meaningful positive changes in our community. Design for Change gives us a simple framework, that helps focus our efforts and develop project-based learning skills that are transdisciplinary. Being part of the Global Design for Change community brings diverse groups of people together to learn with and from each other, with purpose. If you're not part of this, you're missing out. EVERY CHILD CAN design a better world today."
Jon Butcher
Bold Park Community School Principal

Design Thinking Course

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