From breathing new life into old buildings, to supporting young people to develop the skills to succeed in an ever-changing world, RIO innovates to deliver real and lasting social change.
By creating a change ecology – one where we influence policy, shape places, deliver strategic programmes and support and develop people – we can unlock potential and opportunities to create a fairer world; one that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.
Business Support
Business Support
Drawing on our extensive experience of setting up and running our own social enterprises, we provide practical, no-nonsense support for people interested in exploring social enterprise as a business model
Arts and Culture
Arts and Culture
As Bridge organisation for the south west, we work intensively with the cultural sector, supporting organisations to become more sustainable as well as providing focused support to deliver excellence in Cultural Education. For more information, visit our dedicated Bridge website.
Education, Skills and Training
Education, Skills and Training
We design & deliver exciting, innovative, challenge-based learning programmes in a variety of schools and youth settings, whilst also supporting business managers to use social enterprise to help balance the budget. For information on Artsmark, Arts Award and our arts & culture offer to education settings, visit our dedicated Bridge website.
Housing
Housing
We provide strategic support for Housing Associations and Developers, as well as offering practical ways to connect and consult more effectively with communities.
Local Government
Local Government
Building on our proven track record of working with local authorities to devolve assets and generate revenue to mitigate budget cuts, we have developed a bespoke package of training and support for Councils exploring a Commercialisation agenda.
Regeneration
Regeneration
We love breathing new life into redundant buildings to bring them into productive community use. We have managed several redevelopments ourselves and from that experience we provide support and advice for other organisations and community groups working to do the same.
Read more about our clients and what we’ve achieved
Our Impact
In the last 12 months…
102
organisations have received direct support from RIO to grow and develop.
99
of people enjoyed working with us (we're not sure on what we did to upset the other 1% but we're working on it!).
1,151
young people have engaged with real, purposeful and creative learning by working with RIO.
What They’re Saying
News
An exciting project to turn Plymouth into a digital learning campus gets underway later this year. The City Council has worked with the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) on a successful bid to the Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) to become one of the first UK ‘Cities of Learning’. Cities of Learning is based on an…