What are Sense Making Sessions?
Sense Making Sessions bring young people together to discuss the Youth Impact Survey data, hear what you think about it, and your ideas of what we should do with the data!
Youth ideas are compiled into the Data in Action Report, a list of actions that Waterloo Region decision makers and organizations can use to make meaningful change (the Data in Action Report).
We then share the Data in Action report with decision makers and organizations that serve children and youth in our community.
Help shape Waterloo Region
We want to know what YOU(th) think! Join us for Sense Making Sessions over the next few months as we dig into the results of the 2023 Youth Impact Survey.
Are you age 9-18? Sign up to be notified when we’re looking for youth to join us.
What you can expect
We run different sessions based on the data from the nine dimensions of child and youth well-being:
- We are happy and respected
- We are connected to our environment
- We are secure
- We belong
- We are learning
- We are healthy
- We are free to play
- We are participating
- We are protected
Opportunities to participate could look like:
- Pop-up sense making at events or community spaces.
- Group-based conversations with youth and partners. (Bonus: youth can get volunteer hours and be entered to win a prize when they participate in one of these sessions!)
Upcoming Sessions (2025)
We’re excited to spend some time digging into the 2023 Youth Impact Survey data with youth! Throughout 2024 we hosted a number of different pop-up sense making opportunities at events in our communities. In 2025 we’re looking forward to hosting a limited number of sessions with our partners to hear more about how youth think we should move this data into action.
Stay tuned for more information!
Previous Sense Making Results
The 2021 Youth Impact Survey Sense Making Sessions became the Data in Action Report.
We took the data we heard from youth and asked them: “What do you think needs to happen next?” Through over 20 sense making sessions, youth identified key areas for change in our communities. From here the Youth Impact Survey: Data in Action website was born.