Social Impact Design NOW: An Inside Look at Practicing Social Impact Design

On April 8, 2015, NEA Design staff held a one-hour webinar hosted by Katie Crepeau of the Impact Design Hub/Autodesk Foundation. The webinar, An Inside Look at Practicing Social Impact Design, was the first of three webinars in the NEA's Social Impact NOW series scheduled for April, May, and June 2015. This webinar focused on the following: Despite the closing of Architecture for Humanity - formerly social impact design’s largest and most well-known organization - many individuals, organizations and agencies in the field continue to thrive. Ms. Crepeau spoke with three successful designers about the inner workings of their practice and future prospects for the field where designers are needed most.   The Social Impact Design NOW series explores how the field of Social Impact Design (or Public Interest Design or Human Centered Design) has changed since the NEA hosted a summit on the topic in 2012, in partnership with the Lemelson Foundation and the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum. That gathering asked three primary questions: Where are the gaps in the field? What organizational models are successful? and How can we educate the next generation of designers to do this work? Since 2012, there have been both subtle and dramatic changes in the field, with new approaches to academic and public education, a broadening awareness of Social Impact Design in general, and notable change in who is doing the work and how they do it. Register for the May 13th and June 17th Social Impact NOW webinars.