Before There Is a Tool: Using Early-Stage Co-Design to Examine the Legitimacy of Digital Pathways for Youth Social Prescribing

IntroductionYoung people experience high levels of loneliness and social disconnection, yet they often make limited use of formal mental health services. Social prescribing aims to support wellbeing through connection to community-based activities, including arts and cultural participation. In practice, however, prevailing social prescribing models are commonly organised around practitioner–mediated pathways that remain poorly aligned with how many young people seek and negotiate support. This commentary reflects on an early-stage youth social prescribing project that explored the possibility of a youth-facing digital pathway as a potential complement to existing models, and examined its contextual appropriateness and legitimacy. MethodUsing exploratory co design grounded on participatory action research principles, we examined how youth co researchers and community stakeholders collaboratively evaluated the role and boundaries of a proposed digital pathway. Evaluation was informed by an early prototype of an AI enabled digital connector, prior to any design commitment or implementation.Results The inquiry identified a set of pre-engagement conditions shaping whether participation in community-based social opportunities feels possible in practice, including discovery, identity and social fit, feasibility, readiness, and trust. Participants also raised system-level considerations relevant to youth social prescribing. DiscussionEight practice-oriented recommendations are presented that position early-stage co-design as a means to support informed judgement about whether, how, and under what conditions youth-facing digital pathways to offline social connection should proceed within health and community systems, before tools are built.