The IAN Hub: Where Youth Vision Sparked a Movement
- CFL
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Key Insights
Youth-Centered Innovation: The IAN Hub legacy is rooted in the belief that young people are not just the future—they are the creators of that future. By placing youth at the heart of innovation, the Hub sparked a transformative movement in learning that prioritizes their voices, dreams, and ideas.
Community-Driven, Real-World Impact: The IAN Hub inspired the creation of the X.Collective, a youth-led initiative that has catalyzed meaningful change, empowering young people to address real-world challenges such as mental wellness, financial literacy, and community building, all while developing crucial skills for life and leadership.
Summary (TLDR): The IAN Hub legacy is a movement that centers youth vision and leadership in reshaping the future of learning. Starting with a pilot where young people designed their ideal learning experiences, the Hub sparked the X.Collective and Thrive Talk NV—youth-led initiatives that tackle real-world issues and create impactful community solutions. With the launch of Youth Futurescapers, the legacy continues, empowering young people to lead, innovate, and build a connected, compassionate future.
When we at CFL imagine the future of learning, we know exactly where we have to start: with the young people who are already living it.
In the summer of 2022, we took a leap and placed young people firmly at the center of innovation. We invited 13 youth leaders from across Las Vegas to design what they believed the future of learning could and should look like. What happened next did not just change our organization. It sparked a movement that continues to grow today.
The Pilot: Planting the Seeds of Change as the IAN Hub
This was more than a project. It was a bold question brought to life:What if young people could design, lead, and choose their learning experiences? What if they could dream up an environment where curiosity, joy, and future-readiness were not just buzzwords, but daily realities?
Over the summer, a diverse team of young designers, ages 14 to 18 were hired to learn and build. They were trained in several human-centered design processes and collaborated with local artists through Positively Arts. They interviewed peers across the Valley, visited innovative spaces, learned from experts designers of Area 15, researched modern learning approaches, and ultimately created capstone pitches of their vision for the future of learning.
Our youth experts saw the need for an out-of-school Hub where the building is merely a living platform. Relevant learning experiences are plugged in to provide cutting-edge and critical skill development where youth interest, employer need, and emerging skills all overlap. Finally the young people pitched their ideas to the broader community, investors and partners to help bring their vision to life. They named the space the IAN Hub as an homage to a funder who made their work possible and in hopes of securing future investment in the idea. You can see their pitches here.
Themes of connection, real-world readiness, flexibility, and holistic well-being were not afterthoughts. They were central pillars. And they became the heartbeat of everything we would do next.
Growing the Vision: From Pilots to Practice
Inspired by the bold ideas uncovered during the IAN Hub Pilot, we knew our work could not stop there. Throughout the rest of 2022, we deepened our commitment to centering youth voice through the creation of a Youth Advisory Board.
Young people did not just give feedback. They helped shape our strategies, connect youth-serving organizations, and build a framework for authentic youth-adult collaboration across Nevada. They even organized and hosted a convening that gathered young people and community leaders to imagine a future of intergenerational co-creation. Out of that event, the seeds of the X.Collective were planted. Our biggest takeaway from our Youth Advisory Pilot; Young people want to do real work that matters.
The X.Collective: Youth Leading Bold Change
In early 2023, we officially launched the X.Collective by hiring 10 young people as employees of our team. Together, they tackled some of the biggest questions facing our learning communities. How do we build belonging? How do we support mental wellness? How do we prepare young people not just for jobs, but for thriving lives?
Using the design thinking principles first nurtured through the IAN Hub Pilot, the X.Collective created prototypes, projects, and community solutions that echoed and expanded the original vision. Their priorities: flexible learning, real-world experiences, community connection, and holistic well-being remained consistent with what their peers dreamed of during that first summer. Their bold vision was an intergenerational space that helped the community come together and learn through life experiences. Some examples they saw as important learning:
Mental well being
Financial literacy
Healthy eating & cooking
Gardening
Pet ownership
Child care
Year 2 of the X.Collective 2023/2024
By the end of year one, the X.Collective grew to 12 members. They advised on major development of the Portrait of a Nevada Learner by sitting on panels and joining conversations. They were leadering voices in our Vision Seekers Fellowship that introduced young people to the draft of the portrait and asked young people to develop innovations in their own learning experiences. Their biggest project was launching the Nevada Future of Learning Network by creating an immersive learning experience for community members from across the ecosystem to come together and experience the portrait through experiences that asked attendees to grow in their learning, build and sustain relationships, contribute to collective impact, and ultimately thrive.
Thrive Talk NV: Creating Space for Agency and Influence
Inspired by the spirit of authentic collaboration championed in the IAN Hub Pilot, in October 2023, we also launched Thrive Talk NV, a series of workshops designed and facilitated by the X.Collective that focused on developing youth perspective, agency, and influence.
Through dynamic sessions like Thriving Horizons, Story Spark, and Innovators of the Galaxy, young people explored everything from leadership and storytelling to policy analysis and community building. They did not just attend. They led, facilitated, created, and inspired.
Each workshop, each project, and each story sparked by Thrive Talk NV was another echo of the original IAN Hub dream: real work, real skills, and real impact, all driven by youth voice.
Youth Futurescapers: The Next Chapter of Our Journey
Today, we are proud to build on this momentum with the launch of Youth Futurescapers, a paid employment opportunity for visionary, community-minded young people across Nevada.
This summer, Futurescapers will take our existing research, design pitches, and all our existing learning to build the future of learning in Nevada. This next generation will carry forward the spirit, creativity, and boldness first cultivated through the IAN Hub Pilot, expanding it in new and exciting ways.
Our vision remains the same.Young people belong at the center.Their ideas are not just valuable. They are essential.And when given the opportunity, they will build futures that are more connected, more compassionate, and more extraordinary than we could have ever imagined alone.
Applications are open until May 16th.
The Work Continues and We Are Just Getting Started
Thanks to visionary partners and funders who believed early and invested in the very first sparks of the IAN Hub Pilot, we have seen firsthand what happens when youth voice is not only heard but amplified, honored, and empowered.
The future is not a distant horizon. It is being built right now, by the young people leading the way.
And we are honored to walk alongside them, every step of the journey.
