Agency and Flourishing Initiative

A free society, providing freedom of choice and opportunity is a prerequisite for expanding the sphere of human agency and driving societal progress. Yet, only when people are empowered with the skills and belief that they can strive towards their goals and accomplish meaningful tasks can individual progress and flourishing occur.

Internal and external barriers such as fixed mindsets, insufficient skills, oppression or onerous governmental policies that limit an individual’s ability to act freely restrict flourishing and quell agency.

Governments worldwide attempt to centrally plan flourishing through misguided interventions that maximize social welfare and breed cultures of state dependency. Simultaneously, such government planning erects obstacles that limit opportunity and impede individuals’ freedom to act, build a better future, and serve others.

Our approach presents an alternative to the narrow minded paternalistic top-down methods found in much of the development, education, aid, and philanthropic sectors. Rather than being planned from above, we believe greater agency and flourishing comes when individuals are empowered, capable, and free to take responsibility to direct their own lives and be the protagonists of their lives. By removing barriers and increasing economic freedoms, an environment is created in which individuals have more opportunities to innovate, solve problems, and create value that benefits not just themselves, but society as a whole.

Whether it be non-profits working to improve individuals’ capacity for self-determination, developing private sector solutions to enhance people’s skills to build a better future, or advocating the removal of policy barriers that inhibit opportunities, the Rising Tide Foundation has supported dozens of projects that enhance the ability of individuals to live life on their own terms.