Planning Ahead
Preparing Yourself
Start here.
Ethics & Laws
Keep young people safe.
Budgets & Resources
Make it worth their time, figuratively and literally.
Youth Recruitment
Find and invite young people.
Making It Happen
Designing Activities
What to do with youth once you bring them all together. (This chapter is a gold mine.)
Facilitation
Every group – heck, every moment – is different. Here’s how to set the tone and maintain it.
Reflecting & Sharing
Documentation
Reflect on and capture what happened.
Making Sense
Invite youth to help you make meaning.
Closing & Sharing
Involve youth in sharing the results of your project.
Center for Digital Thriving
Hopelab
Character Lab
In Tandem
How to cite
Character Lab, Hopelab, & Center for Digital Thriving. (2024). Youth Voice Playbook: Engaging Youth in Research. Cambridge, MA, USA: Center for Digital Thriving.
Authors
Character Lab: Kelly Organ, Abbie Wyatt-McGill
Hopelab: Emma Bruehlman-Senecal, Amy Green
Center for Digital Thriving: Eduardo Lara, Emily Weinstein, Beck Tench, Carrie James
Acknowledgements
We would also like to acknowledge the following teens part of the CLIP program at Character Lab, for their feedback and insight throughout this process: Manuela Rubio Cana, Jerzaria Twillie, Shola Williams, Tithi Mehta, Methuki Kariyawasam, Christopher Fuentes, Jazlyn Fuentes, Trinity Holderbaum , Alexis Sapp, Tonisha Saint Fleur, Noor Bhatti, Kyela Jones, Valeria Perez, Jaynesha Mauvais, Peter Gadzeti, Amira Martin, and Cayden Draeger.
Contact us
If you have an idea for something missing or a way this resource could be improved, please let us know at digitalthriving@gse.harvard.edu.
(Also, if you’ve done work that’s been informed by this playbook, email and let us know!)