2027 Young Futures Awards
Recognizing the people making the digital world an easier place to grow up.
The Young Futures Awards, powered by Hopelab, celebrate individuals whose work is helping young people thrive in a tech-filled world. For our second annual YF Awards, we're inviting nominations for leaders making a difference in their communities and across the field of youth wellbeing. Nominate yourself or someone whose work deserves to be recognized.
Nominations close December 11, 2026.
Effective Leadership takes many forms
Some people change what happens in a classroom or community. Others influence policy, bring new research into practice, or tell stories that help us understand young people’s lives more clearly.
Now in their second year, the Awards return with updated categories reflecting the different ways leaders are helping make the digital world an easier place to grow up.
YF Awards recognize individual contributions, including work that happens across institutions or outside a traditional nonprofit role, and connect honorees to a broader peer community.
Recognition with a community behind it
YF Awardees become YF Innovators, joining a community of more than 100 leaders from our grantee cohorts and Awards. They’ll receive an unrestricted cash award, join the Young Futures Academy, and become part of the YF500, our initiative to support 500 leaders by 2030.
Along the way, they’ll build relationships with peers who understand the work and can support what comes next.
Find your ideal category
Across every category, we're seeking individuals whose work advances youth wellbeing as they navigate a digital world.
Advancing policies and institutional practices that better support young people in a digital world.
Bringing people together and building collective power and programs around youth wellbeing.
Creating organizations or ventures that respond to young people's needs and help them navigate digital life.
Using storytelling, reporting or creative work to uplift young people’s experiences and digital lives.
Helping young people and families navigate a tech-filled world through sustained support and advocacy.
Deepening our understanding of youth wellbeing and helping that knowledge inform what happens in practice.
Who can be nominated?
Nominees must be based in the United States and work in youth wellbeing, helping make the digital world an easier place to grow up. Early-career leaders, university students, and practitioners are welcome.
- For categories with an age requirement, nominees must fall within the listed age range by December 31, 2026. Research & Academia is open to all ages, 18+.
- Nominees must be based in the United States.
- You can nominate yourself or someone else.
- Previous Hopelab Young Innovators in Behavioral Health Award winners are eligible, but cannot serve on the YF Award Review Committee.
- Previous YF Awardees and current YF Innovators are not eligible for nomination. We encourage our Innovator community to nominate others.
Nominate yourself or someone inspiring
Are you or someone you know making a meaningful difference in young people’s lives? Nominate yourself or someone else for the YF Awards to help us recognize this work and connect honorees to a broader peer community!
Nominations are open through December 11, 2026.
Powered by Hopelab
The Young Futures Awards build on the legacy of Hopelab's Young Innovators in Behavioral Health Awards, continuing a commitment to recognizing leaders advancing youth wellbeing.
View last year's YF Awards Winners
Meet the leaders who made up our inaugural YF Awards cohort and explore the work they're leading to help young people thrive in a tech-filled world.
Good Actors Within Tech & Innovation
Celebrating young leaders using technology to build tools, systems, and ideas that put people, wellbeing, and a healthier digital future first.
Research & Academia
Honoring emerging scholars and researchers whose work helps us better understand how technology, mental health, identity, and belonging shape young people’s lives.
Storytellers: Journalists, Artists & Influencers
Celebrating creators using reporting, art, film, design, and storytelling to help young people make sense of the world in ways that feel human, honest, and hopeful.
Activists
Recognizing young leaders turning lived experience into collective action for policy, justice, safety, and representation online and off.
Entrepreneurs
Celebrating founders and builders creating purpose-driven models that support connection, leadership, wellbeing, and belonging for the next generation.
Adults Championing Youth & Their Families
Honoring adults who show up for young people and families by building systems, resources, and relationships that help them navigate a tech-filled world with more support and possibility.
