<aside> 🧭 Between October 2024 and March 2025, the CAST and NCS Youth Sector Innovation Incubator brought together youth organisations, digital experts, and young people to reimagine youth services using co-creation and user-centred design.

Involving youth organisations, digital experts, and young people, the programme developed three new tools that reflect real needs and lived experience.

This hub shares the insight, research, tools and resources to inspire funders, youth sector peers, and charity teams to embed co-creation in their work. It brings together all of the information for the sector to use, with the aim of working in the open.

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Contents of this hub:

• Key Programme Highlights
• About the Programme
• Programme Objectives
• The participating organisations
• The End Products
• What We Learnt
• Sharing the Research and Other Outputs

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Key Programme Highlights

• 69 young people involved in co-creation and design
• 9 organisations developed and tested new digital tools
• 3 digital partners brought design thinking to the programme
• Post-programme reflections show greater confidence, openness, and shared learning </aside>

“People-powered change works! This programme reinforced the value of co-design and involving people in developing digital solutions that are actually needed.”

— Participating youth organisation

🗺️ About the Programme

A collaboration between CAST (Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology) and NCS (National Citizen Service), the programme invited young people to help shape the services designed for them — with a focus on increasing social cohesion among 15–17-year-olds.

🎯 Programme Objectives

• Develop three digital tools or MVPs that support social cohesion
• Involve young people in meaningful co-design
• Equip youth organisations with lasting digital and design skills
• Explore how the solutions could scale beyond the pilot

👥 The Participating Organisations

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📦 The End Products