Our interdisciplinary team of faculty experts, public health researchers, designers, and community specialists have identified engagement practices and created guiding principles that inform how we collaborate with young people. Not only are young people our partners in practice, but they’re also valued peers.
Youth Engagement Framework
The Youth Engagement Framework is a resource guide that informs our actions and approaches to interacting with young people. Developed by our interdisciplinary team after the completion of our first Youth Advisory Council term, this framework incorporates lessons learned and provides a roadmap for engaging young people in a way that centers their experiences and needs. With the help of this resource, we have been able to incorporate young people’s perspectives more deeply into our research and elevate their voices in spaces where they’re not often heard.
Youth Style guide
To improve the marketing and outreach of health education to young people, the Ci3 communications team hosted three sessions on branding and messaging practices using a social justice lens. Members first learned about the foundation of branding; how color, style, and messaging are used in marketing; and how to implement these practices to create affirming and inclusive health education materials. In the process, staff and members used a combination of storytelling, creative imagery, and participatory design to construct affirming narratives and visuals they wish to see in health education materials marketed in and around clinics, public spaces, and online.
2222: The Power
Building upon the pedagogical methodology of speculative design to inspire justice-based worldbuilding, 2222: to the power is the 2021-22 Ci3 Youth Advisory Council’s vision of a joy-centered future. To create this publication, Ci3 staff and council members participated in a series of workshops January-June 2022. Each workshop introduced complex social scientific theories such as collective imagination, cypher-based storytelling, homonormativity, cultural hegemony, collective imagination, queer theory, and Afrofuturism. Council members worked with Ci3 concept artists as “artqueologists” to create a speculative future artifact from the year 2222. Members were encouraged to think about their artifact’s legibility, location, and material. They then created a narrative explaining the need and functionality of the artifact. View the publication.
We plan to continue working with young people to reimagine possible futures rooted in joy, love, and acceptance.
speculative worldbuilding toolkit
To help uplift and continue joyful futuristic speculative design, the Ci3 team created a guide so others may utilize and build upon this work. Created in partnership with youth fellows, this guide is meant to act as a roadmap for other youth facing work interested in ingraining principles of speculative design into their work. View the publication.
Youth Resource Guide
The Youth Wants, Attitudes, Values, and Expectations (WAVE) around bodily autonomy, gender, and abortion policy was a youth-co-designed qualitative research project. Ci3 interviewed 40 young people living in the Midwest about their thoughts and perceptions around bodily autonomy, gender, and abortion policy. The Ci3 team and Ci3 Youth Fellows created this guide from that research. The purpose of the “Ride the Wave Guide” is to provide information and resources that participants have highlighted during the WAVE interviews.