At YLabs, we design programs that improve young people's health and financial futures.
We believe that today's investments in the health and success of our youth will yield positive returns for the future. YLabs works with governments and local organisations to design, evaluate and scale programs designed with young people that address the key health, economic and social challenges facing today's youth.
Our team of physicians, designers, economists, public health professionals and educators bring a unique mix of youth-centered design, impact evaluation, adolescent medicine and implementation know-how to the global problems facing youth.
We bring together the science of adolescent development, behavioral economics and human-centered design to build and test programs that can enhance the unique potential of adolescents. We founded YLabs in 2015 at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. We started as residents at the Harvard Innovation Lab and have grown into a team of researchers from North America, North Africa, Europe, India, and Sub Saharan Africa.
We work in multiple projects
- 'Just the right amount of water for the amount of flour': engaging religious leaders and young men to improve reproductive health in Niger. How might we design a more supportive environment for young Nigerien couples to plan their families? YLabs and Population Services International are collaborating under the USAID-funded Transform/PHARE initiative to find out.
- Beyond Bias: Improving empathy and choice for young people seeking contraception. Young people accessing sexual and reproductive health services are often faced with stigma, judgment and provider bias. We're designing solutions to these challenges with young people and health workers.
- Men Stand Up: Engaging young men in family planning. Pairing user-centered design with mobile-powered research to design solutions that generate demand for family planning services among young men.
- Cybergirl and Cyberboy: Reimagining sex education. Use of the internet is exploding across Rwanda, especially among youth. We aim to tap into that trend to deliver fun, interactive education that addresses two big challenges of teen pregnancy and unemployment.
- YBank: Improving adolescent outcomes in HIV. Working in partnership with the University of Kigali to develop innovative ways to help adolescents with HIV make healthy choices and lead full healthy lives.