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Background: Youth mental health challenges in Latin America require approaches that meaningfully engage young people and extend research impact beyond academic settings. Participatory arts offer particular promise, enabling creative communication and supporting young audiences to build collective meaning. With three Latin American arts organisations, we co-developed the Young Ambassadors Programme (YAsP), involving nine young artists from Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Lima in translating findings from a five-year youth mental health study (REF from OLA).

Objectives: This study reflected on the YAsP by exploring the effects of participatory arts activities addressing mental health and how these facilitated conversations among young people.

Methods: We describe the activities across the three sites and present findings from a qualitative evaluation with fourteen audience members. Transcripts from semi-structured and group interviews were analysed using template analysis.

Results: In Bogotá, ambassadors developed Sonidos para el Alma, a concert integrating orchestral music with spoken reflections on mental health. In Buenos Aires, they delivered Ola, ¿cómo va tu vida?, a workshop combining games, theatre and guided discussion. In Lima, they created Gris, a forty-five-minute play portraying a young girl’s emotional and urban journey, followed by structured conversations. Three themes emerged: perceptions of the activities, reflections on the message and intentions to share the experience with others.

Conclusion: Participatory arts enabled meaningful, culturally grounded engagement with youth mental health research and supported dialogue in community settings. The YAsP illustrates the potential of youth-led creative dissemination to broaden the reach and impact of mental health research in low-resource contexts.