Laying the groundwork for youth-led change

Youth leadership is often celebrated in outcomes. Less visible, but just as important, is the work it takes to build the conditions that allow young people to lead with confidence, agency and real influence.

I’ve shared a few highlights of this far-reaching initiative with you in past months, but here’s a quick recap: We’ve been intentionally laying the foundation for what comes next. In 2025, we launched Phase I of this work through our Youth Research Team, a group of 22 Crew teens who stepped into Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) alongside a team of adult allies — supportive adults from our program staff and youth wellbeing advisors. 

Our youth researchers learned how to frame meaningful questions, choose research methods, gather peer input and analyze data. They then translated those findings into concrete recommendations for program adaptations and youth-driven communications that reflect the shifting needs and interests of this generation.

Their work has already gone far beyond our walls. Our youth researchers have presented their findings to the University of Cincinnati Action Research Center; shared their work at the City’s Seeds of Change showcase through the City of Cincinnati Office of Environment & Sustainability; presented to the Adventure Crew board; and partnered with staff to begin shaping real program adaptations. Next week, they’ll even host visiting researchers from Harvard’s Good Services Lab — an extraordinary opportunity to share youth-led work happening right here in Cincinnati.

Now, we’re ready for Phase II.

With transformative support from Interact for Health’s Youth Organizing grant (with special thanks to youth grant reviewers from Interact’s Hopeful, Empowered Youth coalition), we’re launching a standing Youth Leadership Team (YLT) in 2026. All youth researchers from Phase I are invited to join. The team will be renamed by the teens themselves, and they are currently designing and will manage the application and interview process for future members. As will be the case with the emerging leadership team, every youth researcher has been compensated for their time and expertise — because leadership and research are labor, and youth knowledge has value.

This grant also deepens our investment in adult allies, the staff and community members trained to support youth leadership without directing it. Through monthly learning cohorts led by the Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Solutions and Interact for Health, our team is strengthening skills in youth organizing, shared decision-making and systems change. Members of our adult ally team will also travel to one of the Aspen Institute’s Community Solutions Forum sites for deeper, on-the-ground learning.

This moment represents something far bigger than a new team. It’s a commitment to building leadership the right way, by trusting young people, compensating them, and giving them real decision-making power in the programs, spaces, stories, and futures they help create.

We are deeply grateful to Interact for Health, the Aspen Institute, and our partners in this work for believing — as we do — that those closest to the challenges are often closest to the solutions.

We can’t wait to see where our youth leaders take us next. Thank you for following along! — Libby