Child Voice Project Pilot
The Child Voice Project (CVP) is a play-based project that gives children age 8 and under a chance to share about their well-being and thoughts about the community. The CYPT worked with the Toronto Metropolitan University’s International & Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP), and the Carleton University’s Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Childhood Rights (LPC) to launch a one-day pilot event.
On April 5, 2025, 25 diverse children between the ages of 6-8 took part in the event. They shared their ideas of what a caring community looks and feels like. This report showcases the Children and Youth Planning Table’s progress in piloting an approach/a framework to hear directly from children age 6-8 about their community and their well-being. Using LPC’s “Shaking the Movers” framework, CYPT recruited 10 local youth to serve as Youth Facilitators. These youth received training on how to lead fun and meaningful data-gathering activities with children at this one-day, in-person event.
The theme of the event was “Building our Communities of Care”, with four subthemes created by the Youth Facilitators: Equity, Allyship, Face-to-Face Connections, and Community. They designed games and creative activities to help children talk about each one.On April 5, 2025, 25 diverse children between the ages of 6-8 took part in the event. They shared their ideas of what a caring community looks and feels like.
In late April, CYPT presented alongside other communities on this pilot project at a national event in Ottawa hosted by the Landon Pearson Centre. Insights from this event were used to create a message for the G7 Leaders’ Summit in June 2025.
Scaling up in Fall 2025
Starting in August 2025 we visited partner organizations for the Child Voice Project.We’re grateful to these organizations for inviting us into your space to hold one-day CVP events:
- Adventure4Change
- Camino Wellbeing + Mental Health
- City of Kitchener
- Greenway-Chaplin Community Centre
- RisingOaks Early Learning
Here are some statistics about what we accomplished after this scale up period:
- Children Engaged: 50
- Partner Organizations: 5
- Youth Facilitators: 24
- Youth Hours: 82.5
Next Steps
We’re working on individual summary reports for each of the CVP events. We will share those reports with each of the host organizations for internal use. Then, once we compile all the aggregate data of what we heard from children across Waterloo Region, we will share that data via CYPT communications channels.
The team and the youth who participated, planned, and facilitated are also working on reflections. We hope that our learnings can carry forward so we can continue to make the Child Voice Project better and better!
We’re also still working on what the Child Voice Project cycle will look like. Similar to the Youth Impact Survey cycle, we’re exploring what a multi-year process would look like for engaging with children. To get the latest updates about the CVP and other CYPT work, please subscribe to the CYPT monthly email bulletin.