133: Centering Youth and Community Voice in the Theory of Change Process to Transform Innovation Development

A Theory of Change (ToC) can guide innovation development, offering a clear framework for achieving desired outcomes. In interventions where youth are the end users, their voices are essential for impact and sustainability. However, youth often are excluded from ToC development. The Office of Population Affairs funded six hubs to support the development of innovative approaches to teen pregnancy prevention. As a hub, we employ our Principles of Meaningful Youth Engagement as a framework to help teams integrate youth perspectives into their ToC, ensuring youth voices are central to innovation development. These principles help ensure youth are active contributors, not passive recipients. This approach promotes sustained engagement and better-informed outcomes, offering evaluators a framework to assess youth involvement in innovation development and ensuring interventions deliver meaningful results for youth.