Most organizations who work with and for young people strive to genuinely involve young people in their work—after all ‘nothing about us, without us’ is a slogan we’ve heard time and time again. This serves as a reminder that if you want programs and policies targeted at young people to work, you must have youth’s full and meaningful participation. Although the intention is usually there, organizations often struggle with putting this into practice and forget to ask the question: How can organizations translate meaningful youth participation from an ideal into practice?

In 2020, EngenderHealth and CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality (CHOICE), a global youth-led SRHR organization, entered into a unique Youth-Adult Partnership (YAP) to answer that question. CHOICE supported EngenderHealth in enhancing our internal capacity to meaningfully work with adolescents and youth across our operations and programming. Now, six months later, they are sharing their aims, what they’ve learned thus far, and where they’re going next!