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.
Following the success of the Child Voice Project one-day event, the CYPT plans to scale up the Child Voice Project. In the later half of 2025, we will partner with local community organizations to host a series of one-day events to hear from children aged 6-8. In line with CYPT’s Data in Action, we will create a plan to share children’s thoughts with decision makers at family, program, and governmental levels. Finally, the CYPT looks forward to continuing our partnership with the Landon Pearson Centre. In July 2025, CYPT staff took LPC’s rights-based training. We will incorporate knowledge from the training as we work with local youth facilitators and may also open opportunities to support community organizations interested in centering children’s voices in their work.