Unlocking the Power of Co-Creation: The Key to Effective Youth Engagement Strategy

Are you wondering why your youth engagement strategy isn’t working? It might have lost its essence...

Essence?

The essence, core, heart, and soul of youth engagement is co-creation.

So, what is co-creation?

Co-creating is about engaging youth in a way that provides them with the opportunity to share their voices and to take actionable steps to implement their insights and expertise into various systems, decisions and structures in an organization. It’s about involving youth in every step of the process to create positive, long-lasting and impactful change.

Chances are, this is something you’ve done before or are looking to implement in your organization.

Ultimately, it comes down to the willingness and commitment of your organization to take tangible actions that incorporate the youth perspective throughout.

Youth engagement and co-creation are the same – they are both models and tools that your organization has to follow if it wishes to engage youth.

Think of co-creating as the action behind the youth engagement philosophy. It’s great to engage with young people, but what is it actually? It’s co-creating. It’s implementing, involving and including youth in your systems, in your decisions, in your operations, and in your organization. It’s sitting down at the table with them and seeing how together you can create solutions to challenges or address issue areas.

So, what happens when you co-create with youth?

2 years ago, I was working as an engagement coordinator. Want to know what my first task was right after I was onboarded? Create a definition for co-creating that the entire organization would use.

My colleague and I set out on crafting a definition with the help of our team, data and research provided.

After defining what co-creating is, I realized that there were moments in my previous roles or throughout my schooling where I was given the opportunity as a young person to co-create, and there were times when I was clearly not.

In the times where I was, I want to share with you how it made me feel. When I was co-creating with my colleagues, I felt able and open to share my thoughts, ideas and opinions. But above that, I felt respected, heard, valued and appreciated.

If youth don’t feel like they have a say or an opportunity to help, why would they want to stay engaged in your community or get involved?

Take it from me, as a young person, once I found a place where my voice was respected, I only wanted to keep giving back to it because I felt valued, heard and appreciated. Co-creation is a tool that can help you engage youth in your community and make them feel just like that.

What does co-creation look like when applied to your organization?

• Inviting youth staff members, volunteers or advisory councils to give their input or insights to non-profit board members.

• Consulting youth through a focus group about a specific topic that has or will impact your community.

• Ask youth volunteers how your organization can enhance their volunteer journey and experience. As well as explore the various ways they wish to contribute and apply their skills.

• Providing youth with the space and opportunity to build a project or initiative from the ground up with you, not just for them.

That in a nutshell is co-creation! If you want to engage youth, you have to start with thinking about what co-creation looks like for your organization.

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