A partnership co-created with young people, and supporting their mental health and opportunities

Barnardo's had secured a three-year, £5 million partnership with Co-op focused on youth mental health and the cost of living, with a target of reaching 750,000 young people. Delivery teams, fundraising and Co-op each held different priorities, and the sharpest question was how best to reach young people: build something lasting, or meet them on the channels they already use.

I started by mapping everyone's objectives, then built a digital-first, co-creation proposition and showed, with insights from commissioned user research, how young-person-led content deepens engagement and conversion. I brought young people into the design so their insight shaped the content formats and channel choices, and ran joint planning that set shared KPIs and governance. Where views differed, I proposed a phased test-and-learn approach, which helped us learn and secured partner and senior leadership buy-in.

The partnership reached its 750,000 target and raised £3 million within 18 months, and the co-creation model became the template for later partnerships.