Frequently Asked Questions
Youth Impact Survey
General
The Youth Impact Survey (YIS) is our community’s opportunity to hear directly from young people about their own well-being. It’s based on the Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being, a framework developed by UNICEF Canada to better understand how children and youth are doing across the country. The Youth Impact Survey runs on a three-year cycle.
Through 2018, 2019 and 2020 UNICEF Canada, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and CYPT partnered to design the first Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey. We connected with youth across Waterloo Region to help make this happen: asking about the domains, getting input into questions, feedback on the survey tool, and how to promote. Youth even named the survey in our community. In 2020, the Youth Impact Survey was born!
The survey is run by the Children and Youth Planning Table of Waterloo Region in collaboration with FamilyPsycle Lab at the University of Waterloo. This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Board.
We ask young people a variety of questions about their well-being, such as questions about their:
- Connections and belonging to the community
- Experiences at home and school
- Activities in school and community
- Perspectives on health and wellbeing
- Safety
- Connections to environment
- Personal characteristics
and more. With the exception of 4 questions at the start that determine eligibility, all of the questions are optional and voluntary.
We know that these topics can feel big and heavy for young people. So we encourage anyone to reach out to our partners in the community (and beyond) if needed:
- Front Door (for youth): 519-749-2932
- Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 or text 686868
- Counselling Collaborative of Waterloo Region: 519-804-1097
- Here 24/7: 1-844-437-3247 (HERE247)
So far, we’ve run the YIS in 2020, 2021 and 2023. You can view all the data reports available here. (The 2023 data reports will be coming out in the near future.) To see how we’ve put into action what the data told us, check out our Data in Action Report.
Right now, the survey is available in English, French and Arabic. We hope to make more languages available in the future.
The consent forms are available in:
- English
- French
- Arabic
- Farsi
- Spanish
- Tigrigna
- Urdu
Info for Youth
The survey is open to youth, ages 9-18, living in Waterloo Region.
You can fill out the survey at www.youthimpactsurvey.ca. Before filling it out, you’ll have to read through the consent form, which shares important information about the survey and our research partners. If you are age 9-13, your parent/guardian will also need to consent.
The survey is pretty long (and can take anywhere from 15-40 mins to complete). There are a few questions at the beginning that you have to answer (to determine if you are eligible to participate), but then all questions after that are optional, and you can skip any questions you don’t want to answer. You can also change your mind about participating by not submitting the survey. After you submit, you can’t remove your answers because they’re anonymous. We don’t ask for your name or full address, so we can’t tell which answers are yours.
No, you’ll need to do it all at once. The reason for this is because we don’t track any identifying things about you, so we have no way of knowing where you left off.
Prizes: You can see a full list of the prizes and information about the draw here. After submitting your answers, you’ll be redirected to a new form to collect your information to enter the draw prize. This survey is completely separate from your answers, so we won’t be able to connect your name to your previous responses.
Your chance of winning one of the prizes is based on how many people complete the survey and enter the draw. We expect that about 1,500 people will enter the draw. You can enter the draw through the link at the end of the survey. If you stop taking the survey part way through and still want to enter the draw, email your contact information to the Program Assistant on the CYPT Backbone Team.
Volunteer Hours: We are a small but mighty team working to get volunteer letters to everyone who requests one. This letter will include all the info you need. We’ll be sending out the letter after the survey closes, starting in Summer 2026. If you don’t get your letter by the beginning of August, reach out to the Program Assistant on the CYPT Backbone Team or direct message us on Instagram (@CYPTWR).
We share what we learn back out into the community using things like reports, presentations, etc. Check out some examples here! We also use the data to work with youth to identify action and changes you want to see happen to make our communities better. Learn more about that process by checking out our Data in Action work here. And some of our partners use the data in funding applications to continue, improve, or increase programming and opportunities for the community.
Info for Parents/Guardians
Too often, decisions about children and youth are made without their involvement. But no one understands their experiences better than them! When your child completes the survey and tells us how they’re really doing, they help decision-makers in the community provide better services and programs. They also have the opportunity to earn volunteer hours, as well as enter a draw to win some incredible prizes.
The risks of participating are minimal. Some questions revolve around mental health, experiences of discrimination, experiences of homelessness, and other areas that impact child and youth well-being. Although they aren’t intended to do so, these questions may make some children uncomfortable, as they may be difficult to read, and/or remind them of challenging personal experiences. These questions may also spark difficult conversations with you as the guardian.
Please note, outside of the initial eligibility questions, all the questions are optional. Your child can skip any question they don’t wish to answer.
We also encourage all children, youth, and families to prioritize their own well-being when completing the survey. If needed, please reach out to any one of the following resources for support:
- Front Door (for youth) – 519-749-2932
- Kids Help Phone – 1-800-668-6868 or text 686868
- Counselling Collaborative of Waterloo Region – 519-804-1097
- Here 24/7 – 1-844-437-3247 (HERE247)
All of the answers provided in the survey are entirely anonymous. Your child will never be asked for their name or any other identifiable information. Additionally, when the University of Waterloo reviews the information, they remove any responses that could even potentially be linked to a specific respondent. As such, all of the data that we (the Children and Youth Planning Table of Waterloo Region) receive and put out into the community is completely anonymous.
If your child chooses to participate in the draw prize, we will need their name and a method of contact in the event they win a prize. These responses cannot be tied back to their survey submission.
We ask about aspects of a young person’s identity (sexual orientation, gender, race, etc.) so that we have the opportunity to see the important well-being differences between subgroups of young people. However, the identity information is never tied to a specific child. Whatever information your child chooses to share about their identity is grouped together with other responses.
The Data
In 2021, the YIS included over 100 data points. The data points included in our reports (and especially in the disaggregated Snapshots) were prioritized based on ongoing discussions with young people and with the Children and Youth Planning Table membership. We also focused on data that, through statistical testing, suggested that there were notable differences between subgroups. Likewise, there are many data points not included in our briefs where there are smaller differences between the subgroups. In many cases, all subgroups expressed similar levels of self-perceived positive or negative outcomes.
Our academic research partner, the FamilyPsycle Lab at the University of Waterloo, conducts additional deeper analysis of the data using various statistical techniques to understand statistically significant connections within the data. Together we gain a more complete understanding of what we heard from young people.
Because lots of young people took part, and they come from many different backgrounds, the YIS gives us a helpful picture of what children and youth in Waterloo Region are saying.
We shared the survey in ways that made it easy to join, like posting it in places where young people already are and asking people to pass it along to others. This helped us hear from many youth, but it also means the survey can’t fully represent every single child and youth in Waterloo Region. Some young people were more likely to see the survey than others. That’s why we treat these results as an important starting point—a first step to help us better understand the different needs of children and youth in Waterloo Region..
In 2026, we set goals (targets) for 50 different demographic groups of young people. During data collection, we are regularly checking how well we are reaching each group. When we see that some groups are still under-represented, we increase our promotion and outreach to help more of those young people take part.
From a research perspective, this means that the YIS may not be completely statistically representative but it does ensure that it reflects a strong cross-section of children and youth in our community