Youth Design Durham! is a community-centered design education program that positions young people, especially those underrepresented in architecture and design, as designers shaping their communities. In one cohort, Durham high school students partnered with architects, planners, and community organizations to imagine and design a “Third Space” for local youth, a welcoming place outside home and school where young people can gather, create, and belong. Guided by youth listening, neighborhood exploration, sketching, model-making, and iterative feedback, students translated lived experience into site concepts and schematic proposals that they presented to city and county leadership. Along the way, they practiced collaboration, critical thinking, and spatial storytelling while seeing their ideas taken seriously in real civic contexts. This session uses that project as a case study to explore how centering youth voice expands access to design pathways, strengthens representation in the profession, and builds community agency. Participants will leave with practical strategies for building authentic partnerships, designing youth-led learning experiences, and supporting the next generation of community designers.