Background: Approximately one in four adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa experiences significantly elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression. Those living in resource-constrained communities face heightened risks due to acute distress, trauma, and less responsive health care services. Methods: The prototype aims to implement a youth-centred community mental health intervention, through collaboration with existing public health systems and community resources. It seeks to enhance access to mental health support for adolescents and young people in Soweto, South Africa, by creating a dynamic and engaging therapeutic environment for those dealing with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. This protocol outlines how we will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and implementation process of the prototype mental health intervention. We will enrol 200 at-risk adolescents and young people, aged 14-24 years, who will serve as their own controls, into the intervention and collect assessment and process evaluation data using mixed methods. Discussion: This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the Ethics: Ethical approval was granted by the Human Ethics Research Committee of the University of the Witwatersrand (M231045 MED23-09-040).