Co-Creating Change: Reflections from INSPIRE Finalists in Montreal

Co-Creating Change: Reflections from INSPIRE Finalists in Montreal

by | Aug 25, 2025 | Engagement Core, Youth Advisory Board

Guest Authors: Jo-Ann Caberoy (Philippines) and William Muthama (Kenya), INSPIRE Youth Co-creation Open Call Finalists

At the STI & HIV World Congress 2025 in Montreal, Canada, INSPIRE finalists joined a global co-creation workshop that brought together researchers, youth advocates, and communities to explore new ways of addressing sexual and reproductive health challenges. For INSPIRE, this was a proud moment, seeing young leaders not only participate but shape conversations on how inclusive, youth-driven solutions can take root.

The reflections of these finalists capture the spirit of collaboration, storytelling, and shared power that defined the workshop. This piece brings their voices together to highlight the lessons they learned, their personal experiences, and why co-creation is central to building more sustainable health solutions.

Why co-creation matters

Too often, sexual health interventions are designed for communities rather than with them. Both finalists agreed that the workshop challenged this traditional model by positioning youth and people with lived experiences as active co-creators.

One finalist explained, “Communities, including youth, co-define what matters. Lived experiences are treated as expertise. Solutions are developed and owned together. It’s not just engagement—it’s power-sharing.” For them, co-creation represented more than participation, it was about genuine collaboration and equitable partnerships that give young people the opportunity to lead.

Lessons from Montreal

The workshop unfolded in three parts: opening presentations and panel discussions, hands-on co-creation activities, and finally, refining the draft TDR/UNICEF practical guide on youth co-creation in health research. This design ensured that participants were not passive listeners but active contributors throughout.

For one finalist, authenticity stood out as a central value, “Personal stories and lived experiences enriched every conversation. Asking the right questions fostered genuine participation, not just token engagement.”

Another finalist noted how the Congress as a whole was a turning point in how young people are seen, “It was inspiring to see young people recognized not just as vulnerable groups, but as innovators and active partners in health solutions. The workshop showed that co-creation can and should be integrated even into traditionally hierarchical fields like HIV programming.” These reflections underline how co-creation is not just a method but a mindset shift, one that insists on valuing diverse voices and creating equitable space for dialogue.

The power of storytelling

Both finalists emphasized the transformative role of storytelling. One, who founded Youth Pulse in Kenya, shared how the co-creation approach deepened their belief in the power of stories to shift narratives, “In my work as a journalist, I’ve always believed in the power of storytelling, not just to inform, but to spark change. At Youth Pulse, storytelling is no longer a one-sided report—it’s a collaborative tool, letting young people shape their own stories.” This message resonated across the workshop, where stories from different cultural and professional backgrounds highlighted a shared question: How do we build solutions that truly reflect the people they’re meant to serve?

Collaboration and community spirit

Beyond structured sessions, the workshop fostered friendships and a spirit of collective action. Participants left not only with new insights but also with solidarity that transcended borders. “It was comforting to know that despite our diversity, we understood that working with people, especially those with lived experience requires openness and humility. We ended the day with new ideas and new friends rallying together against STIs and HIV,” one finalist recalled. This spirit of community was perhaps one of the most impactful outcomes. It showed that co-creation is not just about producing outputs, it is about building networks of trust and collaboration that continue long after the workshop ends.

Looking ahead

For both finalists, Montreal was not an endpoint but a beginning. One finalist left motivated to expand co-creation beyond mental health to sexual and reproductive health, youth civic engagement, and media production. “They say youth are the future, but co-creation taught me we are already the present. If given the space, tools, and respect, we don’t just contribute, we lead the way.”

The other finalist called the workshop “more than just a workshop—it’s a movement,” emphasizing the need to continue building participatory approaches in health research and advocacy. “We look forward to the outcomes of our sessions, which will contribute to enhancing community engagement and co-creating inclusive STI campaigns led by young people.”

Taken together, these reflections underline a powerful truth: co-creation transforms the way health challenges are addressed by valuing lived experiences, fostering authentic collaboration, and amplifying youth leadership. The STI & HIV World Congress 2025 Co-creation workshop was not just a space for dialogue, it was proof that when young people are given the opportunity to co-create, they bring innovation, resilience, and solutions that can reshape the future of global health.

How we turned our safe space into a digital lifeline

How we turned our safe space into a digital lifeline

by | Aug 22, 2025 | INSPIRE Designathon

Guest Authors: Aness Simon and Tamanda Chingoli, Team HushBuddy, Malawi

This blog post is the first in a series written by teams participating in the 2025 INSPIRE Designathon. Chosen from hundreds of submissions, these teams participated in a dynamic three-day sprint to sharpen their ideas and pitch innovative solutions to a panel of expert judges. Each team received funding to implement, adapt, and scale-up HIV interventions for adolescents and young adults over the coming year.

Hush Buddy is a team of four from Malawi. When we first started working with adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with HIV, we saw the difference a safe space could bring. Through the Comfort Corner—a youth-friendly drop-in centre—we offered support groups, mental health counselling, vocational training and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence support. However, we noticed that our target population was not patronizing the Comfort Corner as much as we had hoped. Some were afraid of being seen at the clinic and having their status exposed. Others could not afford to spare time or the cost of travel for in-person sessions. As much as they wanted help, fear and circumstances kept them away.

The birth of Hush Buddy

We wanted to take everything good about Comfort Corner and make it accessible on any phone, whether smart or not. We answered the questions, “What if support didn’t require physically showing up?” and “What if help could meet young people exactly where they are, safely, quietly and privately?”

Hush Buddy is our answer. Hush Buddy is a mobile app based on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), meaning it works on any phone and without needing internet or data—something the average Malawian does not have access to. With a few keypad presses, AYA can access mental health check-ins, connect with an accountability buddy, get medication reminders, or find a vocational training referral. Anonymously.

One challenge has been translating the warmth of in-person sessions and the sense of community that the Comfort Corner brings into a digital format. Some users weren’t sure how to use the USSD system or didn’t trust that help could really come from their phones. Others started using it but dropped off after a few tries. We had to simplify the language and make it feel like someone was on the other side. That human touch, even on a keypad, matters. We are learning that privacy is just as powerful as presence. When someone feels safe enough to reach out, that’s when real change starts.

Participating in the INSPIRE Designathon

Coming into the INSPIRE Designathon, we knew what we wanted to do, but we didn’t know how to explain it in a way that made sense beyond our circles. As nurses and program leads, we were used to thinking in care plans, community outreach, and session scheduling, not frameworks and logic models.

At first, we were nervous. The room was full of academics, researchers, and people using language that felt so far from our everyday work. But we listened. Slowly, things started to click. Through the mentorship sessions, we learned how to present our idea clearly and build a real pitch deck. The RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework helped us look at Hush Buddy from all angles.

We also learned how to collect meaningful qualitative data using focus group discussions, and how that data could be used to improve the service, not just for monitoring. Before the Designathon, we saw feedback as something you did at the end. Now, we see it as something that shapes the process from the start.

The participatory learning meetings continue to give us more than technical knowledge. The Designathon has given us a community. Hearing from other teams reminded us that everyone is learning as they go. We saw people trying, failing, reworking and that made space for us to show up honestly, too. It’s easy to feel like you’re behind when you’re still figuring things out, but through these meetings, we realized that showing up with questions is part of what makes this work real.

Piloting the Hush Buddy app

One of our biggest lessons came after we launched the pilot. We realized we had made assumptions. We thought a USSD platform would be easy for anyone to use. It wasn’t. Some users were confused by the menu. Others didn’t know whether pressing “1” would lead to real help or just a message. And a few didn’t return after trying it once.

We didn’t take that lightly. We held a feedback session with some of our youth participants and asked what would make it easier. The responses were honest: “Make it shorter,” “Say it in Chichewa,” “Tell us what to expect first.” We used that feedback to simplify the menu, adjust the tone of our messages, and rework our scripts to explain the steps more clearly. This process reminded us that youth are not just users; they are co-creators.

We want to see Hush Buddy reach youth in rural districts where HIV support is even harder to access and stigma is higher. We’re exploring partnerships with mobile networks like Airtel and TNM so that the USSD code can be zero-rated and truly free to use. Long-term, we hope the Ministry of Health and other national partners will adopt it into Malawi’s broader HIV support system, especially as a digital bridge for AYA transitioning out of Teen Clubs.

The process of building Hush Buddy has helped us grow as a team—from struggling to turn our idea into a pitch, to confidently presenting it to reviewers, to rewriting menus based on real user voices. We have been stretched in the best way. Innovation isn’t always tech-heavy. Sometimes, it’s about quietly creating something that meets people exactly where they are.

For us, Hush Buddy is not just a mobile tool. It’s a promise that support doesn’t have to be loud or public to be powerful. It can be quiet. It can be private. And it can still save lives.

INSPIRE Youth Co-creation Open Call Finalists

INSPIRE Youth Co-creation Open Call Finalists

by | Apr 29, 2025 | Youth Advisory Board

While youth engagement in innovative research methods is growing, it remains critically low in conventional health leadership across local and national systems. However, there is increasing recognition of the importance of involving young people in initiatives that directly affect their lives. This shift has prompted a move toward working with youth rather than for them, emphasizing their active participation in decision-making processes.

Co-creation is an iterative, bidirectional collaboration between researchers or stakeholders and the community to create knowledge, fostering broader public engagement in medical research. 1,2 Youth co-creation ensures that programs are more relevant and inclusive and empowers young people in decision-making that shapes their lives with attention to power imbalances. However, there is limited understanding of the practical tools needed to implement various youth co-creation approaches, highlighting the necessity of developing a structured guide to facilitate this process.

The INSPIRE team, Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health (SESH), and Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) jointly launched a youth co-creation crowdsourcing open call. Crowdsourcing is defined as having a large group solve a problem and then share their solutions with the public.3 Crowdsourcing allows for diverse perspectives and encourages the participation of those outside traditional research circles and it typically does not set strict limits on participation. The purpose of this crowdsourcing open call is to gather experiences, good practices, and practical tips on youth co-creation to inform the development of a practical guide to support stakeholders with effective insights in researching, designing, implementing, and evaluating youth-focused programs to enhance health and well-being. The crowdsourcing open call steering committee included fifteen (15) representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. The committee represented experts in youth engagement, participatory research, and co-creation in diverse sectors such as academia, non-profits, development agencies, and startups. The steering committee members, who met every other month on Zoom, provided high-level guidance on the specifics of the open call.

The SESH website announced the open call and provided key details along with the challenge question: “How can we best design, execute, or evaluate successful youth-focused co-creation health programs or research projects?” Social media assets (infographics, short videos, and e-mails) were developed, translated, and disseminated across social media with the support of the steering committee, the organizing committee, and partner organizations.

The call was open until January 25, 2025. All submissions received were screened for eligibility and to also remove incomplete, duplicate, and bot submissions. The final 51 eligible submissions were evaluated by 14 independent expert judges using the following five criteria: 1). relevance to the call, 2). clear and concise description, 3). adaptability, 4). feasibility and scalability, and 5). promotion of equity. The steering committee shortlisted submissions with a mean score of at least 7.5/10 for a videoconference deliberation to select finalists. Four finalists were selected from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Philippines. Below is a summary of the finalists’ submissions:

  1. Youth Pulse: Empowering Resilient Minds Through Co-Creation (William Muthama | Kenya)

Youth Pulse empowered young people to become creators of mental health solutions through a dynamic three-stage engagement model. Youth-led ideation sessions using empathy tools collaborated in design sprints with platforms like Miro and Figma and later became peer mentors driving localized campaigns. Safety measures included mental health first-aid training and anonymous feedback. To tackle cultural stigma, youth co-created comic books in local dialects; to sustain engagement, gamified “Youth Co-Creation Olympics” were introduced. Outcomes included an 82% boost in mental health literacy, with 70% of youth are producing prototypes (40% adopted locally), while also igniting youth leadership and shifting public perceptions.

  1. Unplugged: Youth-Driven Solutions for Digital Addiction (Mdoo Emmanuella Tormough and Joseph Asipitha Onipe | Nigeria)

The Digital Wellness Toolkit co-creation activity engaged young people in addressing digital addiction and promoting mental health by identifying key challenges, co-designing solutions, and shaping outreach strategies. Youth stayed engaged through interactive techniques like role-play, creative labs, and storytelling workshops, alongside expert mentorship and gamified tasks. Icebreakers such as the “Digital Detox Challenge” fostered open dialogue, while power imbalances were tackled by forming a youth advisory board. Flexible scheduling and stipends ensured inclusivity. Success stemmed from a youth-driven agenda, real-life impact through pilot programs, and formal recognition, which collectively inspired continued participation and empowered youth to lead change in digital wellness.

3. Youth Co-Creation for Mental Health Innovation: Empowering Young Minds (Palesa Tsotetsi | South Africa)

The Youth Co-Creation for Mental Health Innovation project empowered over 200 young people through brainstorming sessions, design sprints, and peer-led focus groups to develop mental health solutions. Activities like innovation bootcamps, hackathons, and storytelling circles encouraged empathy and creativity, supported by community mentors and gamification. Digital tools enabled inclusive participation, with rural access facilitated via community center partnerships. Outreach through schools and NGOs ensured diverse representation. A key outcome was the development and pilot of a mental health app in two schools. Trust-building, regular feedback loops, and flexible facilitation emerged as critical to fostering authentic engagement and reducing mental health stigma.

  1. Co-creating Social Innovation for Sustainable Community Transformation (Jo-Ann Caberoy and Fababaer Emerson | Philippines)

The Urban Farming Co-Creation Workshop engaged youth in sustainable community transformation by promoting awareness of local food systems and activating green spaces for social connection and physical activity. Using the Living Lab Bayanihan framework, participants collaborated through case challenges, brainwriting, and local games to co-create practical solutions rooted in Filipino values of unity and shared responsibility. Youth leaders shaped the workshop design, while mentoring and harvesting sessions deepened engagement. Communication tools like WhatsApp ensured coordination, and trust was built through consistent community interaction. Partnerships with youth councils and local governments enhanced impact, while flexibility addressed weather disruptions and logistical challenges.

Prizes and next steps

Findings from the thematic analysis of the eligible open call submissions will inform the development of a consensus practical guide. A systematic review of youth co-creation and a co-creation conceptual framework will provide supplementary data to make the guide comprehensive. We are simultaneously organizing a series of participatory co-creation sessions between May and July involving the finalists, commended submissions, and the public to co-create social media assets and selected sections of the practical guide. The four finalists have also received invitations to attend the participatory co-creation workshop at the STI/HIV 2025 World Congress in Montreal, Canada, with full travel support from the INSPIRE team.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health (SESH), Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI), and the Innovative Network on the Science and Practice of Implementation, Research, and Engagement (INSPIRE) team. The INSPIRE Center advances dissemination and implementation (D&I) science to adapt, scale, and sustain evidence-based HIV interventions for adolescents and young adults (AYA) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As part of the PATC³H-IN network, INSPIRE applies an Appreciative Inquiry approach that builds on system strengths to drive change. Through its Capacity Supporting Core, Advanced Methods and Modeling Core, and Community Engagement and Dissemination Core, INSPIRE supports training, advanced methods, and engagement strategies across six PATC³H-IN countries: Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, and Tanzania. INSPIRE’s vision is to end the HIV epidemic among adolescents and young adults aged 10–24 years. The Center is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UM2HD116395.

References

  1. Oertzen, Anna-Sophie & Odekerken, Gaby & Brax, Saara & Mager, Birgit. (2018). Co-creating services—conceptual clarification, forms and outcomes. Journal of Service Management. 29. 10.1108/JOSM-03-2017-0067.
  2. OECD (2019), The Innovation System of the Public Service of Brazil: An Exploration of its Past, Present and Future Journey, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a1b203de-en.
  3. Crowdsourcing in health and health research: a practical guide. Geneva:  World Health Organization; 2018. TDR/STRA/18.4.  Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.