Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab receives $100,000 to make youth ideas happen

Funding from United Way will help local organizations break barriers, support child and youth well-being

WATERLOO REGION – United Way Waterloo Region Communities (United Way WRC) is investing $100,000 for Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab (SWRIL) to deliver training to community organizations that serve children, youth, and families. The training will help develop a community-wide framework to support youth innovation and fund youth-led projects – with the goal to improve child and youth well-being.

“Our community is in crisis. We need to approach solutions in different ways. When we heard about the work happening at CYPT and SWRIL, we knew it had the potential to create real change for youth and in turn, for our whole community,” said Joan Fisk, Chief Executive Officer of United Way Waterloo Region Communities. “We understand the value of investing in work at the systems level and building capacity, especially now with the rapid pace of change.  As the Canadian tech hub, there is no better place than Waterloo Region to dive deep into innovation to make long-term sustainable change.”

“Building a community where young people are healthy and thriving is a key priority for our community and the goal behind the creation of Smart Waterloo Region,” said Karen Redman, Chair of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. “This investment from United Way Waterloo Region Communities will help create opportunities for young people in our region to become the leaders and change makers of the future.”

Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab was established in 2021 with the goal to make Waterloo Region the best community for children and youth. SWRIL supports a variety of youth-led experiments and projects, like youth-led gardens, an innovation curriculum for youth ideas in schools, and tools like an AI chat bot to make it easier to find supports in the community.

"Children and youth have so many ideas to make their community better, but they don’t always have the resources to make change happen," said Jahmeeks Beckford, Play Lead at Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab. "We need to work together – young people, community organizations, government, and businesses – so young people can ideate, innovate, and build out their projects.”

Many community organizations that serve children and youth are members of the Children and Youth Planning Table of Waterloo Region (CYPT), a collaborative of service providers, researchers, planning bodies, and funders aiming to move the needle on child and youth well-being. Smart Waterloo Region and United Way are partnering with the CYPT to support this community-wide partnership of organizations as they break down barriers in the child and youth ecosystem.

Adventure4Change (A4C), a CYPT member organization that serves vulnerable youth in Waterloo Region, was among the first to receive training from SWRIL.

“We are an organization on the path to sustainability,” said Oluseun Olayinka, Executive Director of Adventure4Change. “The training further informed the team’s decision to build capacity to use innovative program design, implementation, and evaluation strategies to address social issues like lack of access to systems, inequality and so on, as found in the communities we work with.”

This funding from United Way WRC will enable Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab to deliver training to 30 per cent of Children and Youth Planning Table organizations in 2024. While priority will be given to agencies affiliated with the CYPT, SWRIL will also offer training to any business or organization that shares their goal to make Waterloo Region the best community for children and youth.

United Way WRC has committed up to $250,000 to achieve this goal. To donate to the United for Youth initiative, please visit https://ecommunity.uwaywrc.ca/UnitedYouth.

About Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab

Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab (SWRIL) was originally Waterloo Region’s entry into the 2019 Smart Cities Challenge. After months of public and stakeholder engagement, Waterloo Region decided the challenge most important to them was healthy children and youth. Although they didn’t win the competition, SWRIL survived based on generous funding from area municipalities and the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation. SWRIL has engaged over 5,000 young people through the lab’s youth-led projects, pilots, and experiments. Learn more about Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab and their projects.

About United Way Waterloo Region Communities

United Way Waterloo Region Communities believe that every person in every community deserves the opportunities, access, and connections they need to build a good life – regardless of their income, the neighbourhood they live in, or their social identity.  Thanks to generous donors and partners, United Way WRC are privileged to collaborate with people, non-profits, and businesses to empower multiple innovative, impactful, and measurable solutions. United Way WRC fight local poverty by building and strengthening a network of agencies that function as the Waterloo Region’s social safety net.