Smart Waterloo Region 2021
This project supports the Region of Waterloo's strategic focus area(s):
The mission of Smart Waterloo Region (SWR) is to be the best community in Canada for Children & Youth.
The SWR vision was originally created in 2019 when the Region of Waterloo entered, and became a finalist, in the Federal Government’s Smart Cities Challenge. Though the Region didn’t bring home the $50 million dollar prize, the community has come together to fund the program and bring the youth-centred vision to life.
SWR’s mandate lasts through to 2040 and aims to make lasting, positive change to how our community works for and with our youngest citizens. The program is acting as a bridge to the future by creating a model that places Children & Youth at the centre of our community.
To do this they are examining our community across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. By actively seeking out and engaging communities, and in particular individuals who have experienced systemic barriers and individuals furthest from opportunity, we can start to remove inequalities and create a community of regenerative, resilient, engaged, and empowered citizens.
The SWR program model is centred on building and piloting tools, policies and knowledge to empower both citizens and government:
- Partnerships – Collaboration with intra-region partners, the community, and external collaborators to adopt and create best practices.
- Pilots - Enable learning and serve as an experimentation platform to increase social and economic outcomes across the Region.
- Projects - Plan, develop, and lead projects that empower citizens and create the best community for and with Children & Youth.
A central partner of SWR is the Children and Youth Planning Table (CYPT) – the go-to body in Waterloo Region for system/community-wide efforts to support child and youth well-being. With over 800+ young people and adults in its membership, this group works to collectively mobilize around meaningful actions that support all young people in the community.
Four Program Streams
- Data Dry Cleaner – The Data Dry Cleaner aims to build a data exchange and Child & Youth dataspace where the individual owns, controls, and benefits from their personal data. The end goal is to transform data into information that is displayed visually by geography and economic activity to inform policy and action within the Region.
- Kids Arcade – What if we could use play to build 21st century skills and create Belonging for Children & Youth in our Region? The Kids Arcade create a learning and change management platform that will leverage information created by the data exchange to build training and create a ‘serious game’ and gamification of skills and behaviours.
- Ice Cream Shop – The ice cream shop is about creating partnerships to support and fund solutions benefiting Children & Youth. By engaging and developing partnerships across the Region, Province, Country, and around the World, the Ice Cream Shop will launch 12 Region wide initiatives (businesses/business models and/or social models), 6 provincial wide, 3 national, and 1 magical global unicorn.
- The Banting Project – Inspired by Dr. Frederick Banting, this Banting Project will empower Children & Youth by making accessible for free or low cost exponential technology and tools that will power our world in the 21st century.
Ask a question!
Welcome to the Q&A tool! With this tool, you can:
- Ask a question directly to the Project Team
Here's how the tool works:
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- Submitted questions are reviewed by The Project Team
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- Sometimes answers require information from multiple sources. If the answer is going to take longer than 3 business days, we will let you know.
