Our Core Values

Our Vision
We strive for a future where adolescents have the support, resources, and confidence to build their most brilliant futures.
What is youthink?
At youthink, we believe everyone is an innovator. youthink Incubator Hub is a cohort program that partners with organizations across the United States and its territories to develop innovative solutions to complex challenges in adolescent and young adult health. youthink supports teams through an 8-month process – by providing training, coaching, funding, and more – to help them design and test groundbreaking ideas.
youthink is powered by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs (OPA). We are part of a larger network of Innovation Hubs working together to foster innovation and expand the evidence to support and advance health equity in the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program. Read our FAQ to learn more about youthink.
Take a look at our youthink journeymap graphic below for more information:
- In the Orient stage, teams get to know each other and the youthink process.
- In the Empathize stage, teams connect directly with the people impacted by the issue they are focusing on and learn about their experiences and needs.
- In the Define stage, teams analyze the information they’ve gathered and get clear on the challenge they are working to address.
- In the Ideate stage, teams brainstorm ideas for how to solve their problem.
- In the Prototype stage, teams build a preliminary representation of an idea to share with stakeholders.
- In the Test stage, teams gather feedback to improve their prototypes.
- In the Sustain stage, teams think about how to continue working on their prototype and applying design thinking skills after youthink.
- In the Message stage, teams learn how to tell the story of their work and celebrate their process.