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Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey Toolkit

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What is well-being?

Different cultures, communities and age groups have varying concepts and experiences of what it means to live a good life based on their contexts, goals and values. Everyone, including children and youth, has the right to define what well-being means to them, their community and their society. No single index or approach can do this on its own. However, approaches to measuring well-being share some common ideas.

UNICEF Canada asked hundreds of young people in different parts of Canada – including diverse children and youth – about what well-being means to them. The Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being was built around their inspiring and achievable visions of children’s lives in an equitable and sustainable society where:

  1. No child lives in poverty
  2. They are healthy, safe and secure
  3. They are free to dream, play, wonder and learn
  4. They know who they are, where they come from and where they are going
  5. They have access to the resources they need to reach their full potential
  6. They feel loved and included

The Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey helps to measure the extent to which their communities meet these conditions and aspirations.

In 2019, the Child and Youth Planning Table of Waterloo Region aligned their shared goals for children and youth and a shared measurement framework with the nine dimensions of UNICEF Canada’s Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being.


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