What We Do

We achieve our charitable purpose and desired outcome by:

Young people at conference in small discussion group.

Providing Youth Opportunities

"We incubate and innovate through inter-generational partnerships and, because we do, we generate sparks for positive change."

We work in inter-generational partnerships to support young people to put their ideas for improving themselves, their peers and their communities into action. We design programs and facilitation to run conferences, events, youth groups, advisories and skill building opportunities. We work to deliver these programs through our youth-adult partnerships in a network of organizations across Canada. This Youth-Adult Partnership Network Includes youth, adult allies and grassroots organizations in local communities who support youth to thrive. Many of our network partners participate in our funded projects and support us to deliver national programs connected across the country. Two other networks are also co-ordinated nationally: The Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement and Sharing the Stories. Various local and regional networks include the Greater Than Network in Prince Edward County, ON, the Y2KFLA Network in eastern Ontario, and the Saskatoon Youth Strategy Network, SK

Canada We Want youth participants presenting conference results on stage at RBC Future Launch event

Influencing Those Who Influence Youth

"We work with partners and, because we do, we are inclusive and supportive, building community and strengthening a network of partners dedicated to youth thriving."

We are grounded in the principles of network leadership (Wei-Skillern, Ehrlichman, and Sawyer (2015):

  1. Trust not control… Diverse actors invest resources into building long-term relation
  2. Humility not brand…Network leaders are largely anonymous by design… they cede their power to the collective
  3. Node not hub…Network leaders not only connect to the larger system around them…, but also deliberately catalyze and lead action-oriented networks that are aligned around a defined shared purpose.
  4. Mission not organization… Network leaders are motivated to achieve maximum impact rather than to advance themselves or their organizations.
A group of young people seated with laptops filling out Sharing the Stories surveys online.

Storytelling, Research and Evaluation on the Impact of Youth Engagement

"We turn knowledge into action, and action into knowledge and, because we do, we are constantly learning and improving our process, as well as those of others."

We lead the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement, a national network of youth, youth-serving agencies and academic partners interested in sharing best practices on youth engagement. We facilitate the Centre’s research initiatives including Sharing the Stories, an on-line, interactive research and evaluation platform focused on amplifying the voices of youth. There are currently 315 organizations subscribed to the Sharing the Stories platform. We work with each subscriber to develop a customized evaluation plan, support the collection of voice, analyze voice to identify key learnings and outcomes, and facilitate opportunities for the subscriber to engage with and make meaning of the data.