Now available — the Creative Youth Development double issue of Extensions magazine, guest edited by Denise Montgomery → Extensions magazine — guest edited by Denise Montgomery →
Community

A network built around the people doing the work.

Practitioners, researchers, funders, and young people — connected across borders.

Young musicians and mentors together at a Totem Star showcase — a creative youth development community
Who We Serve

Whoever is shaping young people's creative lives.

Practitioners

Teaching artists, program leaders, and educators delivering creative youth development on the ground.

Researchers

Scholars studying the field — and looking to put findings into the hands of those who can use them.

Funders

Foundations and supporters seeking to invest where it matters most for young people.

Young People

The creators at the center of everything — whose voice and agency guide the work.

Policy Makers

Leaders shaping the systems and resources that make this work possible at scale.

Partners

Allied organizations advancing the arts, education, and youth development worldwide.

Voices from the Field

In their words

Perspectives on creative youth development from the Creative Youth Development double issue of Extensions.

"Creative youth development is not solely about preparing future artists or innovators. It is about preparing citizens capable of imagining alternatives and contributing to their realisation."

Vlad Glăveanu, PhD

Full Professor of Psychology, Dublin City University Business School; Founder & Director, Centre for Possibility Studies (Ireland)

"CYD functions as upstream civic infrastructure. It prepares young people to engage institutions before they enter formal decision-making spaces, while modeling the very behaviors—listening, co-creation, iteration—that institutions themselves seek to embed."

Pia Saunders Campbell

Head of International Growth & Policy, International Youth Foundation (IYF); Policy Chair, Alliance for International Youth Development (United States)

"…disengagement is not an option, because every space where youth are absent is a space where decisions are made without them."

Juan Felipe Pinto Castelblanco

Youth Congress Manager, Biennial of the Americas (Colombia)