2025-2026 United Way WRC_Annual Report - Flipbook - Page 36
Strategic Partnerships
United Way Waterloo Region maintains strategic partnerships with three
key organizations that provide vital infrastructure and coordination across
the non-profit sector. These long-term partnerships have been formalized
through annual agreements and are supported with quarterly funding,
reflecting our shared commitment to building a stronger, more connected
community.
Empowering Children & Youth
As a strategic partner of United Way Waterloo Region, the Children and Youth Planning
Table (CYPT) serves as a backbone organization for community knowledge,
collaboration, data analysis, and child and youth engagement. CYPT brings together
service providers, researchers, planners, funders, and young people to better
understand emerging needs and support coordinated action across Waterloo Region.
Through initiatives such as the Child Voice Project and the Youth Impact Survey, CYPT
ensures that children and youth play a meaningful role in identifying priorities and
shaping community responses. Youth leadership is central to this work. Youth
Connectors, who are hired onto the CYPT Staff Team, help design outreach, support
survey implementation, and interpret findings, while youth facilitators engaged children
directly through the Child Voice Project to ensure younger voices were reflected in
community planning and decision-making.
As one Child Voice participant shared:
Equity is about fairness and giving others
what they need and it means sometimes
giving others more for it to be fair.
Insights from the Child Voice Project, the
– Child Voice Project Participant
Youth Impact Survey, and the Data in
Action process help identify community priorities, including mental health, housing,
safety, belonging, and youth voice. These priorities closely align with United Way
Waterloo Region's investment areas and help inform community-focused funding
decisions.
Youth Impact Survey findings continue to strengthen the community's ability to attract
resources. Data from the survey has helped local organizations secure $2.99 million in
grants from United Way Waterloo Region and other funders.
One example is the Youth Impact Project, supported again in 2025 by United Way
Waterloo Region and the Region of Waterloo. The initiative funds youth-led projects
that respond directly to community needs identified through youth-generated data and
insights.
Learn more: https://childrenandyouthplanningtable.ca/
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