Kids listen to kids.
Kids know what other kids are really experiencing online. Our Youth Ambassadors are older pupils trained to lead conversations with younger pupils through play, helping them make better choices and agree on shared values as a class.
Why young people lead
When it comes to the digital world, kids often know more than the adults around them: the apps, the games and what’s really going on. Adults don’t always get it. An older pupil does.
The Youth Ambassador Program puts that knowledge to work. It gives young people a real leadership role, and gives younger children a trusted guide who is only a few years ahead of them.
Research backs this up: peer tutoring adds around six months of extra progress in a school year, for both the tutors and the pupils they teach.²
When kids play and teach, everyone learns
Ambassadors teach younger pupils how to talk about digital life and make good choices. Younger pupils share what’s really happening online. Play is where they meet. Learning goes both ways.
Remember more.
Teaching makes learning stick. It’s called the protégé effect: across 28 studies, students who taught others learned more than those who only studied.¹
Build empathy.
Ambassadors see digital life through younger eyes.
Live the values.
Teaching what matters makes it their own.
How it works
A small team from each school.
Four to five older pupils (or more, depending on the school) and one teacher or counselor who supports them and takes ownership of the programme once it is up and running.
Trained through play.
At a shared training day, Ambassadors learn through games and activities how to lead conversations, include everyone, and help a group reach shared values together.
Certified as Youth Ambassadors.
Pupils earn their certification. Their teacher is trained to keep the programme going.
Leading younger pupils.
Ambassadors run playful activities with younger classes, using games and conversation starters.
Keeping parents in the loop.
Parents get an overview of what the group has agreed, so they can continue the conversation at home and uphold the shared values.
One movement of learning
The programme links the three places where children grow up: school, home and the peer group. The same shared values travel between all three.
Ambassadors create new tools
What Ambassadors hear in classrooms becomes fresh, current conversation starters for parents and educators, added to the toolkit for everyone.
Recognition for Ambassadors
Depending on the country and school, Ambassadors can earn certification, school credits, community service hours or internship opportunities.
Backed by research
We want to prove how effective this approach can be. We’re researching the programme’s impact with university partners through the Youth Ambassador Study. It measures the effect on wellbeing, belonging, youth leadership, shared values between school and home, and children’s ability to make empowered decisions online. Research for a Better Digital Future
Rooted in shared values
Community, character, wellbeing, and freedom with responsibility. These ideas sit at the heart of Danish schools, where they’re known as fællesskab, dannelse, trivsel and frihed under ansvar. Denmark ranks second in the world for children’s wellbeing³ and has been in the top three happiest countries on earth in every World Happiness Report since it began in 2012.⁴ These values work in every classroom.
Who is behind it
The programme is developed by Jessica Joelle Alexander with Stine Liv Johansen (Aarhus University), who shapes the model and its evaluation, and Helle Jensen, a leading voice in relational pedagogy. It is delivered with Danish school leaders, wellbeing teachers and pedagogues.
Bring it to your school, or sponsor a cohort
Schools and municipalities can bring the programme to their pupils. Funders and brands can sponsor Youth Ambassadors for a school, a town or a whole region.
Sponsor a school cohort:
One cohort trains 4 to 5 Ambassadors and one educator, who then lead playful conversations with younger classes and their families. Your sponsorship covers:
Training days and facilitator time
Games, activity kits and conversation materials
Ambassador T-shirts and badges
Parent overviews and take-home materials
Developing and updating the programme
Every partnership is shaped together.
¹ Kobayashi, K. Learning by preparing-to-teach and teaching: A meta-analysis. Japanese Psychological Research. 2019. See also Fiorella, L. & Mayer, R. E. The relative benefits of learning by teaching and teaching expectancy. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 2013.
² Education Endowment Foundation. Teaching and Learning Toolkit: Peer tutoring.
³ UNICEF Innocenti. Report Card 19: Child Well-Being in an Unpredictable World. 2025.
⁴ World Happiness Report 2026. Denmark ranked 3rd.