Exploring sexual and reproductive health (SRH) through the intersections of young women’s lived experience of wellbeing, adolescent developmental science, evidence-based programming, and the sectors and structures that young people look to for support in a healthy transition to adulthood.
Thrive Together asks two questions:
1. What are the implications of understanding how adolescent and young women define and experience wellbeing in their lives, and the role they wish practitioners to play in supporting it?
And, further:
2. What are we called to shift, to make it possible for practitioners across sectors to work together to design and implement programmes that are responsive to young women’s self-defined experiences of wellbeing?
Thrive Together brings together practitioners, researchers, and community partners who want to understand what thriving and wellbeing mean to adolescent women and young people who can get pregnant as they transition into adulthood and envision what this might mean for those working to support equitable health and wellbeing.
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Qualitative research workshops with women of reproductive age, using reflective and participatory research methods to explore their experiences and aspirations for a thriving life. For example, we are using arts-based qualitative methods with women in Wakiso, Uganda and Yolo County in California to explore what wellbeing means to them and collectively make sense of their experiences through conversation and discussion.
In-depth story-making workshops with women who want to take their stories further through a collaborative artistic workshop where they can develop and craft their own stories. These workshops combine different forms and modalities of story-making with iteration and peer feedback, so that the women make stories that are meaningful to them about their own experience. These story workshops, planned for mid 2026, will centre coming of age experiences.
Participatory sense-making with story-making workshop participants to identify the ways in which young women’s experiences of and aspirations for thriving in their life intersects with sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
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Transdisciplinary developmental science, SRH research, and emerging wellbeing frameworks.
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Facilitated dialogue workshops bringing people with experience of SRH together with wellbeing practitioners, to envision what women’s aspirations for a thriving life could mean for wellbeing and SRH in their local communities.
Collaborative discussions within communities of practice to explore how practice and structures can respond to research findings, for future cross-disciplinary collaboration, practice, and research and measurement aligned to advance young women’s wellbeing, as they define it.
Our approach weaves together:
Our team works relationally, iteratively, and in partnership, supporting others to deepen work already in motion.
If you are also working at the intersection of wellbeing, SRH, community development and related fields — or if you are exploring similar questions — we would like to hear from you.
