Over the past five years, the Collective has helped shape Esmée’s work, challenging assumptions, informing decisions and strengthening its approach to co-production. This timeline highlights key moments, learning and achievements from the partnership’s journey to date.
Introduction from Hudl
What the IYPC has achieved over its first five years is a testament to the curiosity, commitment and courage of everyone involved. These values have allowed us to explore co-production together, to test our collective boundaries and to support each other to go further, share more, and experiment. Curiosity, commitment and courage have also given us space in which to learn and develop; and they have afforded us the confidence to trust one another, taking forward steps even when the destination is unknown.
Not everyone can work in this way. Endowed foundations have a unique privilege in terms of their wealth and stability, and therefore their ability to both experiment and plan. In establishing the IYPC, and in how they have worked with the Collective, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation have stepped into their privilege and by doing so, allowed us all to learn far more about co-production than we might have otherwise.
Sharing that learning is the ambition behind this document. We hope that it is useful, and that it supports and encourages others to deepen their co-production practice. Most of all, we hope it leads to more exciting opportunities for young people, and more collaborations embedding curiosity, commitment and courage into their work.
2026 and beyond: What’s next
The next year will continue to be a mixture of reflection, learning and action. The IYPC are working with Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to share the insights which emerge from Blue Spaces and the Involving Young People Fund, and collaborate with Foundation staff to use this learning to create toolkits to support the sector and young people involved in other co-produced design projects.
The Collective will also deepen their involvement in grant-giving work: continuing to review the Foundation’s grant assessment process alongside funding managers, examining how processes can be made smoother while increasing the involvement of the IYPC; accepting invitations from grantees to support them on their funded projects; and launching the next phase of the Youth-Led Creativity Fund.
Next: How it works
A flexible model of collaboration between young consultants, HUDL and Esmée, has allowed shared responsibility for grant-making, project work and ongoing learning across the partnership.