Our Theory of Change 

This is a summary of how we describe the situation we’re responding to, how we understand what's needed. It is this understanding that informs and shapes our work.

• Health is shaped by our environment, social context and inner lives. Health is much more than the absence of disease.
• Many of our institutions and systems are set up in ways that create inequality and can be harmful to individuals, communities and the natural world.
• To enable healthy individuals and communities, we need to address structural injustices. It can be unhelpful to suggest it is individuals or some communities who are deficient and ‘need fixed’.
• Cultural narratives and beliefs can compound wider structural issues. We need change to take place on a number of levels – in the way we do things and the stories we tell, within the collective and the individual.
• The usual forms of intervention are not designed to change our systems, beliefs and narratives. More collective, intuitive and perhaps even soulful responses are called for.
• Changing culture can reshape structures. To bring change it can help to name thinking, behaviour and practice that limits us and be open to exploring other ways of being in the world.
• Work, wealth and welfare need a radical review if they are to contribute to greater structural equality and wellbeing. Work needs to extend beyond ‘earning a wage’ to acts of care and contribution as well as creating cultural wealth.
• Craft work creates wellbeing. Acts of making integrate connection to self and the natural world and generate a sense of agency.
• Knowing our past and connection to the natural world can help us re-write future stories that are healthier for all.
• New ways of understanding the world are supporting healthier patterns of organising and being that are more conducive to the flourishing of all.

An extended outline is set out in Appendix 1 of our Charter (click to download).