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Upcoming Conferences

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Academic Programs

Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship
Program at New York University for educating and inspiring a new generation of leaders in public service. A select group of undergraduate and graduate NYU students are chosen annually to learn cross-disciplinary skills for producing sustainable and scalable solutions to demanding social problems.

The Rural Studio
Auburn University program co-founded by the late Samuel Mockbee that engages students and a select pool of graduates from outside the university in the practice of community-based architecture in Alabama.

Austin Center for Design
Austin Center for Design exists to transform society through design and design education. This transformation occurs through the development of design knowledge directed towards all forms of social and humanitarian problems. The Center offers an innovative curriculum that repositions creative design education in the context of designing for the public sector.

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Competitions

Re:Vision
Initiative to create the prototype for an innovative, sustainable urban community. At the heart of the process is a series of contests generating visionary ideas for what can and should be done in the design of urban space.

INDEX Design Challenge : Design for Education
The INDEX: Design Challenge asks design and business students, as well as cross-disciplinary student teams, to develop design solutions for better education and education environments in developing regions. The challenge centers around three sub-themes: Improved Education Facilities; Sanitation and Hygiene; and Gender Parity in Education. As well, the contest features an open challenge. Participants from all design disciplines are invited to enter the challenge.

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Fellowships & Prizes

Prince Claus Awards
Since 1997 the Prince Claus Awards are presented annually to artists, thinkers and cultural organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Principal Award of 100,000 euros is presented during a festive ceremony in Amsterdam in December every year. The additional awards of 25,000 euros each are presented at ceremonies in the Dutch embassies in the countries where the recipients live.

The Secretary's Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls
The Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls seeks to find and bring to scale the most pioneering approaches to the political, economic and social empowerment of women and girls around the globe. Founded on the premise that the major economic, security, governance and environmental challenges of our time cannot be solved without the full participation of women at all levels of society, this award supports the Department of State’s commitment to the advancement of women globally.

TED Fellows Program
The TED Fellows program helps world-changing innovators from around the globe become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Fellows are drawn from many disciplines that reflect the diversity of TED's members: technology, entertainment, design, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs, business and more.

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Organizations

The Designer's Accord
International coalition of more than 170,000 designers, engineers, corporate leaders and others invested in positive social and environmental action. Described as the "Kyoto Treaty of design," the accord requires adopters to follow five guidelines: a public declaration of participation, effort to bring sustainability into client conversations, effort to educate one's design teams about sustainability, consideration of one's own ethical footprint, and contribution to "the communal knowledge base for sustainable design."

Project for Public Spaces
New York-based non-profit dedicated to creating and sustaining vibrant community spaces. Since its founding in 1975 has served 2,000 communities in 26 countries.

Designers Without Borders
Non-profit consortium of designers and design educators working to assist institutions of the developing world with their communication needs.

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Programs & Initiatives

DESIS Network
DESIS is a network of schools of design and other schools, institutions, companies and non-profit organizations interested in promoting and supporting design for social innovation and sustainability. It is a light, no-profit organization, conceived as a network of partners collaborating in a peer-to-peer spirit. It is articulated in several DESIS-Local (that are sub-networks within a specified local area). DESIS-International is the framework where the different DESIS-Local coordinate themselves and where some global initiatives are taken.

The Mayors' Institute on City Design
National Endowment for the Arts-sponsored program that helps mayors to be the leading urban designers of their cities. Every year, the institute holds half a dozen two-and-a-half-day sessions attended by mayors and development professionals.

The Governors' Institute on Community Design
Modeled on the Mayors' Institute on City Design, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Governors' Institute on Community Design was created in 2005 as an advisory resource for state leaders to guide development in their states. Runs targeted one- or two-day workshops.

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Publications & Websites

Social Design Site
Online platform that showcases and moderates discussion of international social design projects. "We want SocialDesignSite.com to be that place where we can all observe, reflect and engage with the world we live in."

Jetson Green
Jetson Green is an online magazine, updated daily, that publishes information about all aspects of green building, including sustainable architecture and eco-friendly development. The chief editor, Preston Koerner, began the site as an MBA student, and he is now also an LEED AP. Jetson Green’s aim is to get the reader obsessed with the issue.

Core77
Directed at industrial designers, Core77 publishes articles, discussion forums, an extensive event calendar, portfolios, job listings, and a database of design firms, schools, vendors and services.

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Social Networks

Open Architecture Network
An online, open-source community founded by Architecture for Humanity. Offers a place where designers can share ideas and projects and host or participate in competitions

BOP Source
"Social network that closes the digital divide, bringing together the 4 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid (the 'BOP') with the companies and NGOs that want to hire them and design products and services for them."

Design 21
UNESCO and the Japan-based company Felissimo are behind this network, which connects designers, businesses and nonprofits for the greater good and hosts competitions to create socially minded products and graphics.

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