Alexis Stern, Shannon McCullough, Alex Newson and Arena Lam—WestEd
The International Baccalaureate (IB) commissioned WestEd to conduct a review of the IB’s pilot youth strategy, encompassing three initiatives: the Festival of Hope, the HundrED Youth Ambassador Programme and the Global Youth Action Fund. Launched in 2022 and 2023, these initiatives aim to empower young people to create a better world. The researchers collected and analysed survey (n=87) and interview (n=24) data, reflecting the perspectives and experiences of a sample of IB staff and consultants, youth participants over the age of 18, school staff, and youth organizers and speakers. The evidence suggests that participants found the initiatives to be relevant and useful to them. Youth participants described several benefits of the initiatives, including opportunities to grow in confidence as leaders, to be trusted and taken seriously by educators and other adults, and to build the skills and resources needed to enact change in their communities. The review indicated that the next stage of the initiatives’ development should focus on balancing sustainability, depth and scale while strengthening alignment between them. By iteratively improving initiative designs, leveraging lessons learned and fostering collaboration among stakeholders, the IB can maximize the effectiveness and scalability of the initiatives.
