Ci3 believes in creating an affirming, inclusive, and collaborative space with young people. We center their perspectives and voices in our research, interventions, and when identifying priorities in our work. Young people have worked alongside us to interrogate reproductive healthcare policies, develop new research practices, guide the design of clinical tools, create digital stories that reframe positive adolescent narratives, and co-develop games that engage with topics like reproductive and social justice.
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.
We would like to share our tools, methodologies, and practices with colleagues in hopes of inspiring future youth-centered initiatives.
Our Guiding Principles
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.
Ci3 Youth Advisory Council
Youth Advisory Council members collaborate with our team, including faculty partners at the University of Chicago. Each cohort of around 12 high school students between the ages of 14 to 18 years old contributes to year-round research and design projects. These projects include making sexual health education games, providing feedback to improve contraceptive educational products used in clinical settings, and creating digital narrative projects that speculate the future of health and well-being for adolescents.
Recent Youth Advisory Council Projects
2222: to 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.
The speculative design workshop toolkit will be available in December 2022 for stakeholders to access.
We plan to continue working with young people to reimagine possible futures rooted in joy, love, and acceptance.
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.
The Guide will be available in early 2023.
Hexacago Health Academy 2.0
In support of the Ci3 Hexacago Health Academy 2.0 (HHA) program, Youth Advisory Council members gave art and design feedback on a graphic story to teach the ecological systems model, piloted portions of game design and public health curriculum, and provided input on logistics and programmatic elements. As a result of their input, Ci3 staff incorporated art style recommendations into a graphic story and curriculum design.
HHA is a five-year, National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded intervention to develop and evaluate a public health and game design curriculum with rising 11th and 12th graders.
Myleena Webb
Myleena is a 2019-20 Youth Council alum and current youth engagement fellow. She was instrumental in the documentation of the Queer Speculative Design project as a Youth Advisor, and mentored Youth Advisory Council members on conceptualizing their speculative artifacts. Myleena also served as a near-peer mentor for our summer Hexacago Health Academy program in 2022.
Milo Vanderkloot
Milo is a Chicago high school student and Ci3 communications fellow. He’s now supporting the content design of the Communications Youth Style Guide as a former member of the 2021-22 Youth Advisory Council cohort. He is committed to raising awareness of health issues that impact LGBTQ youth and people living with disabilities.
Akira Malik
Akira is supporting the speculative design toolkit as a fellow. She also joined Ci3 as a Youth Advisory Council member in 2021-22. In her final project as a member, Akira drew inspiration from Paulo Freire’s educational theoretical concepts for her speculative design artifact. Akira is currently attending New York University as a first-year undergraduate student.
Youth Advisors and Fellows
Our youth partners are instrumental and collaborate with staff all year round, so their perspectives and feedback are included in the research design and creative process before projects are implemented in the field and shared with stakeholders. Youth Fellows often join us after participating in the Youth Advisory Council or other projects. We have found the practice of including near-peer mentors can improve engagement from youth participants and Youth Fellows can work alongside staff to guide completion of a youth-centered project.
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Contact
If you want to learn more about how we engage young people, please reach out to Ci3 Community and Youth Engagement Director, Ailea Stites at astites@bsd.uchicago.edu.