By Val Weisler
When I was a teenager, deep in the throes of youth empowerment work, I held the title of “Youth Advisor” for many organizations. For some, that name carried a genuine responsibility: I was making real, important choices in collaboration with my peers and adults in leadership roles. I learned things I could take back to my own efforts, and I was taken seriously. But for most, I quickly learned that the weight of an organization having a “Youth Advisor” existed solely in their checklist, branding, and ability to have a headshot of me —braces and all — next to their staff members.
In our world here at Hopelab, we are all too familiar with this dichotomy. Young people are often told they will have opportunities to take on leadership roles, only to realize that their participation is shaped and restricted by the adults in power.
In 2024, Hopelab launched its policy department with a commitment to continue our foundational belief: meaningful change for the mental health and well-being of Black, Brown, and Queer young people cannot be designed for them—it must be built with them. Then, in 2005, we hired our first-ever policy interns, both young people, and worked closely with them to build our policy platform and identify our priority states and areas of focus.
This evolution led to the creation of Hopelab’s inaugural Youth Policy Cabinet, a collective of seven young leaders, ages 18 to 22, who are helping shape the future of youth mental health policy alongside us. Representing eight states and bringing expertise that spans rural equity, disability rights, toxic stress in childhood, AI, and other pressing issues, these members are not serving as symbolic advisors. They are co-creators, strategists, and thought partners helping bridge the gap between lived experience, research, and policymaking.
At a moment when young people are too often the subjects of policy debates rather than participants in them, Hopelab’s Youth Policy Cabinet offers a different model—one that treats youth expertise as essential infrastructure for effective policy change. Members help translate emerging research into advocacy priorities, provide guidance on complex and evolving policy questions, and inform where and how Hopelab should engage at the state and federal levels.
The Cabinet is also designed to elevate youth voices beyond the confines of a single advisory group. Through speaking engagements, op-eds, public conversations, and field-building opportunities, members help ensure that the perspectives of those most affected by youth mental health challenges are heard where decisions are being made.
Just as importantly, the group prioritizes community over competition. Through learning sessions led by Hopelab staff and partners, cabinet member-led discussions, and office hours that create opportunities for mutual learning and feedback, we hope to foster a culture of co-creation, intellectual exchange, and shared growth. We know that serious work does not benefit from sacrificing silliness. Lasting change is built in spaces where young people can bring their full selves, where challenges are met with community, and where joy, creativity, and bold ideas are treated as essential ingredients for impact, not distractions from it.
Developed under a meaningful, genuine participation approach prioritizing the Lundy Model aspects of space, voice, audience, and influence, Hopelab’s Youth Policy Cabinet reflects a broader vision for what policymaking can, and must, look like: research-informed, youth-centered, and grounded in the lived realities of the communities it seeks to serve. By bringing young people into the room as collaborators, Hopelab is investing in a future where the next generation helps shape the policies that shape them.
Our seven inaugural members offer a range of relationships with Hopelab and our partners. For some, serving on the Cabinet is their first introduction to our work, and for others, this is a new layer to previous collaboration. We can’t wait for you to see what they do.
