project story
National Youth Organization
Innovation Framework Development and Launch
What if young people helped build the solutions meant for them?
The Moment partnered with a national youth organization to design an innovation framework and then put it to work on two high-priority ideas. Across two phases, the engagement moved from building the process itself to using it in practice, with both the organization's team and young people playing active roles throughout.
Challenge
The organization had no shortage of ideas for how to better support young people across Canada. What was missing was a reliable, repeatable way to surface those ideas, assess them consistently, and decide which ones were worth pursuing further. Existing approaches lacked rigour for the pace of innovation the organization needed.
At the same time, there was an opportunity to ensure that young people were not just the subject of new solutions, but active contributors to shaping them.
Approach
Phase 1 focused on designing the innovation framework itself. The Moment engaged internal stakeholders from across the organization to understand how ideas were currently surfaced, documented, explored, and assessed. The team was passionate about their work and processes were already in place to capture ideas broadly, including from those working directly with young people. This understanding informed a series of co-creation sessions with stakeholders to build a four-phase framework moving from idea generation through concepting, prototyping, and transition. Each phase was supported by practical tools to keep the process consistent, transparent, and accessible. The framework was tested with the team, and two existing ideas were prioritized to carry forward into Phase 2.
Phase 2 put the framework into action, serving two purposes at once: testing the framework in practice and genuinely advancing the two ideas to determine if and how they should be developed. Internal sessions helped the team explore the organizational factors connected to each idea. Young people were engaged as active participants through in-person and virtual sessions, contributing feedback on early concepts as well as co-creating new directions and entirely new ideas. Their involvement was a critical part of assessing whether the ideas had real potential and what form they should take.
Project Leads
Mark Kuznicki
Partner
Mark (he/him) is passionate about supporting purpose-driven leaders navigating complexity and transformation. He believes that change happens by meeting people where they are while pointing the way to their highest potential.
Karen Oikonen
Principal
Karen (she/her) believes that real change starts with deeply understanding people. A lifelong explorer and champion of the human experience, she is committed to creating inclusive, participatory engagement with diverse communities.