The Healing Power of Green Spaces

Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice Entrance garden. Image © Gensler & Luxigon.

Over the last decade, there has been a renewed awareness in the role of designed natural environments and health. This becomes extremely important in environments like healthcare facilities, where patients’ physical or psychological well-being is impaired. As Roger Ulrich documented in his paper, “Health benefits of gardens in hospitals” in 2002: “3-5 minutes in nature or viewing natural scenery can help patients in hospitals recover faster by reducing the physiological indicators of stress, improving mood and aiding in healing.” The healthcare community is looking at adopting integrated care systems in which outdoor healing and therapeutic gardens are an essential complement to the indoor treatments.

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Design Activism: Three Areas of Impact

Image © Gensler

Not-For-Profits are intrinsically motivated; they are driven by passion for what they do and an extreme sense of purpose. Collaborating with them not only calls for a different breed of design intervention, it calls for a different type of designer as well—one who sees a calling far beyond empathy and can truly live and breathe their client’s mission. To address pressing global issues, designers will partner with other disciplines to address issues and solve problems. “Design can no longer afford to be used as an afterthought in any organization, and I would encourage all designers to take more proactive steps to redefine their roles beyond design to that of conscious and ethical decision makers,” Asta Roseway, fusionist at Microsoft, told Fast Company.

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Radical Collaboration: 48 in 48

Image © Gensler

Not-for-profits spend most of their time doing good, not looking good. One organization, 48in48, aims to change that—with an audacious goal: building 48 websites for 48 not-for-profits in 48 hours. Their first inaugural event in Atlanta in 2015 delivered $1,200,000 of value to not-for-profits over a 48 hour period. Since then, they have expanded to six cities—with a plan to reach 48 cities by 2025. The impact of delivering 2,304 websites to not-for-profits in one weekend has incredible potential for positive impact and provides significant value to the communities and missions they serve. But how could 48in48 extend this impact even further—to elevate their mission by taking their event to a global scale?

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Radical Collaboration: The Power of Unlikely Partnerships

This blog post is part of a series on Purpose-Driven Design for the Not-For-Profit world.

As we learned in our 50 conversations, the non-profit world is a rapidly evolving one. Forever chasing unpredictable funding streams, the wandering attentions of the public, and amid a political sphere in upheaval, non-profits are being forced to examine their operational partnership models. Looking at the of the worlds of music, media, and business shows us that unexpected alliances can, in fact, not only produce symbiotic relationships, but drive the creation of something even greater.

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Radical Collaboration: 50 Conversations

This blog post is part of a series on Purpose-Driven Design.

“Our mission will be achieved when there are no more NFPs that have to choose between serving communities and keeping the lights on.” – Chandra Farley, former Program Manager, Southface Energy Institute

Not-for-profits have a real estate problem. They also have a donor problem. And a retention problem. And a resource problem. Thankfully, they are also presented with an incredible opportunity. We are in a moment of great need for leadership and vision around the intractable social challenges of our time. People are seeking more purpose in both their work and personal lives. They are blending their passions, beliefs and goals into cross-cutting pursuits that imbue their everyday lives with deeper meaning.

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