i4Y is made up of scholars who work closely with and learn from global and local practitioners, policy makers, and young people themselves on issues such as youth violence, homelessness, reproductive health, and educational inequalities.
We build partnerships between faculty from diverse fields, students and trainees at UC Berkeley with adolescents and community collaborators. From this work, we develop, evaluate and diffuse innovative interventions, practices, and policies. This includes pursuing projects while building and strengthening our training and mentorship.
i4Y was launched in Fall 2016 by co-founders Professors Coco Auerswald, Emily Ozer and Ndola Prata. Driven by the need to connect UC Berkeley faculty working on youth equity research, i4Y has built a legacy of cross-disciplinary research work around youth engagement, community partnership and equitable impact. In 2018, i4Y launched its signature undergraduate training initiative Youth Equity Discovery Initiative (YEDI; originally called YES - Youth Equity Scholars). With YEDI, we seek to impact the changemaker pipeline, engaging more future scholars in the meaningful work of addressing youth equity.
