How do youth and adults work together?
Youth and adult allies co-lead projects. Youth set priorities, design questions, facilitate conversations, and interpret insights. Adults help with logistics, coaching, and creating supportive environments.
What roles do adult allies play?
Adults act as mentors, organizers, and partners in storytelling – always in service of youth-led action.
Testimonials
- “Cortico’s partnership has empowered our students to lead positive change in our school culture in a way that is meaningful and collaborative.” – Superintendent, RSU 5
- Through Cortico, we’re able to efficiently and powerfully invite our community of youth around the world to inform our strategic direction. Cortico enables us to analyze and amplify youth voices and opinions from around the world in a way that traditional survey instruments and focus groups cannot do.” – Asheesh Advani, CEO, Junior Achievement Worldwide
What do young people say about working with us?
Young people describe working with Cortico as an experience where they feel heard, respected, and trusted to lead, and where their experiences and ideas directly shape conversations, decisions, and action.
- “Working on this project for the past year has really helped me mature a lot. I was able not just to listen to the stories of other youth but also to help them feel comfortable and safe sharing their experiences and affirming that they are not alone.” – Kevin, Youth Policy and Advisory Board, Newark Opportunity Youth Network
- “My biggest takeaway was the patience, understanding, and tools the staff gave me. As a slow learner, having that support made a huge difference. I remember telling the Cortico team how nervous I was and how much I struggled with confidence when talking to others. That experience showed me that despite my fears, I can host a conversation whenever I want.” – Didon, Cortico on Campus Fellow, University of Southern Maine
- “I had a great time with all the Cortico workshops. I found they were really informational and I enjoyed ‘learning by doing’ a lot. I think for me, that's how I learned the best. So that was really helpful. And a couple of things that I feel like I upskilled a lot in was first conversational design. So I really thought a lot differently about how to create questions and ask questions not just kind of in the context of the Cortico program and conducting research and interviews, but also just in my day to day life and how I engage with just people in everyday context.” Chuer, Cortico on Campus Fellow, Stanford University