The Youth Voices Research Group was born from the TeenNet Research Project, founded by Dr. Harvey Skinner in 1995. TeenNet was initiated to generate new knowledge and develop practical tools for engaging youth in health promotion using interactive technology. One of the first research programs of its kind, TeenNet has been a pioneering initiative, combining high tech Website development, community mobilization and action research. TeenNet played a key role in the evolution of youth engagement in Canada, and served at the forefront of community-academic research partnerships. In 2006, Dr. Cameron Norman took over the leadership of the project and led the transformation of it into the current Youth Voices Research Group.

In 1996-97, TeenNet worked directly with youth, health practitioners and educators to develop an interactive website called CyberIsle to assist teens in addressing their physical, emotional, and social health needs. Young people from diverse backgrounds were involved at all stages of development, implementation, research, and evaluation. In 1998 TeenNet began working with adolescent health practitioners and youth to create a Teen Clinic Online for CyberIsle. The Teen Clinic Online was launched in 2000 along with state of the art smoking prevention and cessation resource called the Smoking Zine. The Zine offers teens information on their smoking habits, and for smokers ready to stop practical steps for changing their lifestyle.

In 2000-2001, TeenNet conducted a qualitative research project to investigate how youth use technology for health information, in order to better connect young people to health resources. In the same year, TeenNet also established a research project around the prevention and treatment of youth gambling problems. In 2001, TeenNet conducted a pilot study on the use of multimedia technologies to promote youth engagement and ownership in community action and health promotion. From this pilot work, TeenNet developed the Global Youth Voices Project with the goal of creating innovative, youth-driven models for social action and community health promotion. Since 2001, Global Youth Voices has worked with community-based organizations in Canada and internationally to implement and refine a model for engaging youth in social action and community health promotion using multimedia technologies. Through Global Youth Voices, TeenNet’s own youth advisors created the Smoke Free World Youth Group to look at issues of tobacco and globalization. In 2002, the Positive Youth Project was funded to look at how to engage youth living with HIV in research to improve the health of youth living with HIV in Canada. In 2003, TeenNet completed a large-scale randomized trail to evaluate the impact of the Smoking Zine on youth smoking behavior.

In 2004, TeenNet used the Global Youth Voices process to issue identification and cultural exchange with students in two Bedouin high schools in Israel. This work became the Global Youth Voices Middle East project and has been expanded to include Jewish, Jordanian and Palestinian schools, in collaboration with the peace through health initiative, CISEPO (Canada International Scientific Exchange Program).

In 2005 TeenNet began a key partnership with TakingITGlobal to provide content and evaluation for their new site for educators, TIGed. This partnership generated the Virtual Classroom for Tobacco control, building on both the Smoking Zine and the Smoke Free World projects. In additional TeenNet and the Gendering Adolescent HIV/AIDS Prevention program partnered with TakingITGlobal to develop TIG Xpress HIV/AIDS, an HIV prevention and education project which combines learning through the arts with new social networking technologies.

In 2007 TeenNet Research became the Youth Voices Research Unit of the Centre for Health Promotion until April 2009, when the Centre’s physical home closed.

In December 2011, Youth Voices Research Group moved out of the University of Toronto and became a research collective affiliated with CENSE Research + Design and continues to do leading edge research on youth engagement and health promotion.