Accountable Futures Collective is governed by 3 Boards, each with a specific purpose:

1. Impact Board (young people): the purpose of the Impact Board is to ensure young people set strategic direction and determine how we engage with young people and partners

2. Integrity Board (18+): the purpose of the Integrity Board is to make sure the collective is managed effectively in order to achieve its purpose within budget, and that young people are enabled to lead

3. Intergenerational Board (all ages): the purpose of the Intergenerational Board is to create conversations across generations, provide guidance and expertise, and ensure the collective itself is accountable to young people in everything it does and is having genuine impact.

Supported by a Charter, each Board has unique responsibilities and rhythms, as well as unique decision-making processes. Incorporating diversity in approaches to meetings, communications, capability building and delegation of responsibilities enables intergenerational perspectives to guide different aspects of Accountable Futures Collective.

Some elements of governance are shared, developed and decided collaboratively, such as Our Values and Design Principles and leadership evaluations. Creating these foundational elements together enables cohesive decisions to be made by the different Boards with alignment to shared values and ideas.

What are we learning?

Intergenerational governance has been essential to creating Accountable Futures Collective so far. 

This model has created tangible, practical accountability to young people in all decision making: start-up strategy, values, partnerships, funding, youth engagement, communications and team performance. Our focus on changing the way young people and adults connect and work together is continually shaped by what we are learning through this deliberate power sharing.

Enabling Conditions for Intergenerational Governance:

The key ingredients for success have been:

• Supporting young people to take up their power and leadership

• Asking adults to take up their roles and share power in new ways

• Intentionally supporting adults to think and act differently, so that young people can truly lead

• Identifying what is unique for each Board and what is shared across all Boards

• Collectively answering the big questions together, including ‘how will three Boards act as one?’ and ‘what happens when Boards disagree?’

What are we still exploring?

Alongside the benefits of intergenerational governance, we are still exploring:

• Strengthening connections between the Boards; logistics, scheduling and timings to enable this

• Improving opportunities for the Boards to learn and access mentoring, from each other and those not yet connected to Accountable Futures Collective

• Improving induction processes for each Board to support new members learning into a new way of working and connecting

• Process to recruit new Impact Board members that reflect the diversity of experiences that exists amongst young people

View and download the full Governance Development Approach (v3.0), including current Board Charters, here:

Published: June 2024
Version: 3.0

Written by: Accountable Futures Collective