Something Shifted in Austin 🪩
Hope, joy loops and the future young people deserve
Young Futures Community,
Hosting the Young Futures Block Party wasn’t in our plans when we launched YF two years ago. But somehow, along the way, it started to feel inevitable.
The raw ingredients were there and the signs kept getting louder. When it comes to brilliant youth leaders, we have an embarrassment of riches in this space. We have trusted adults dedicating their lives to supporting teens and preteens. We have stronger research and a deeper understanding of the importance of listening to young people. And we have a growing collective sense that failing this generation of young people isn’t an option.
Despite all that, something still felt missing.
As a society, we’re short on optimism right now, but we aren’t short on reasons for it. We came to Austin to celebrate what’s working, especially the young people already shaping the future they deserve. As Larz May put it: we’re done with doom loops. It’s time for joy loops.
We’re doing so much of this work through Zoom conversations and “LinkedIn friendships,” trying to chip away at problems that seem to evolve in real time. We’re doing hard work, often without the human connection that helps people stay energized enough to keep going. I think people were hungry to be together in a way that felt human and just sit next to each other. To have the kinds of conversations that feel expansive because they’re happening under an oak tree, without the pressure of that next meeting at the top of the hour. We needed to laugh hard, share meals, dance and feel hopeful about where things could go.
That’s what the Block Party became.
We kicked things off Wednesday evening at the beautiful Arlyn Studios, a space with so much history and Austin soul. Ryan Star set the tone with acoustic rock that stopped the room cold and the Real Young Prodigys brought the house down with hip hop that felt as much like activism as performance: young people using their voices to speak directly to the issues affecting their community in Louisville, KY. People met for the first time, reunited after years apart and stepped into the Young Futures community. That energy carried into the next day at Distribution Hall, where we gathered for a day of conversations and celebration.
One of the most meaningful parts of the week was honoring our 2026 Young Futures Awardees, powered by Hopelab, and welcoming them as Young Futures Innovators. These leaders represent the next wave of youth wellbeing work across tech, research, storytelling, activism, entrepreneurship and adult allyship. We also got to bring together all five Young Futures cohorts for the first time, from Lonely Hearts Club to Oops!... AI Did It Again. Some cohorts even showed up with their own swag. It was a beautiful thing to see.
Throughout the day, conversations kept returning to identity, belonging, agency and what it actually looks like to support young people in a rapidly changing AI world. In Ask Lisa (and Dylan) Live!, Dr. Lisa Damour and Dylan Keith Humphrey answered real questions from young people that were honest, funny, tender and complicated, reminding us just how savvy and self-aware this generation is and how deeply they want trusted adults who will truly listen.
We had many moments of pure joy. People ate breakfast tacos, BBQ, and popsicles in the Texas heat, laughing through line dancing with varying levels of success. At one point, a YF grantee jumped fully clothed into the hotel pool at 11 p.m. I’m protecting identities here.
As people relaxed, guards came down. Conversations became more honest and more ambitious. New friendships and collaborations started forming everywhere you looked. There was this shared feeling that maybe we’re building something bigger than we realized: a real community around the belief that young people deserve optimism about their futures.
The Block Party didn’t solve all our challenges. But I left feeling more convinced than ever that hope matters. Hope isn’t denial or escapism, it’s fuel for this movement.
This Block Party may have been our first, but it felt like the beginning of something much bigger.
Thank you to our YF Innovators and awardees, funders, partners, speakers, performers and friends for making the week what it was. And thank you to Pivotal, Pinterest, Hopelab and Google.org for supporting the event and to Panacea Collective for helping bring the entire experience to life so beautifully.
For everyone who joined us, I’m deeply grateful. For those who couldn’t make it this year, we’ll be back. 🪩
With gratitude,
Katya Hancock
CEO, Young Futures