The Children and Youth Planning Table (CYPT) is a community-wide partnership in Waterloo Region that works to improve child and youth well-being. The collective vision of CYPT is ‘Happy, healthy children and youth today and tomorrow’ and the collective Mission is ‘To collectively mobilize as one system for children and youth in Waterloo Region, that relentlessly strives to maximize well-being throughout generations’.
Organizations that are a part of the CYPT collective include: municipalities and townships, school boards, universities/colleges, child and youth serving organization, and individual youth. There are over 900 youth and 900 adults involved with CYPT. The CYPT functions with 60 Voting Members (aka partners), Steering Committees, Working Groups, Funders and a small team of backbone staff. The CYPT staff team works to give system coordination to the 68 voting organizations. The CYPT staff supports conversations, and coordinates efforts around finding meaningful opportunities to work differently and collaboratively in the broader system, collects/shares important data about child and youth wellbeing in Waterloo Region annually, and gathers input from partner organizations to steer goals and Regional outcomes.
SVP has invested in a working relationship to assist in areas CYPT has identified as priorities and areas of support. An early project will have SVP Partners assisting in the recruitment and marketing for a new Co-chair of the CYPT Steering Committee, as theirs recently stepped down from the position. The CYPT has also identified the interest in exploring new and ‘non-traditional’ potential funding sources. As such, they will join the other investees in the ‘Fundraising 101’ Session. A long term project that SVP will be supporting is strategic planning, as the CYPT is currently working with the consultant Rebecca Sutherns, on the creation of a new strategic plan for the organization. As this project progress, SVP will likely be supporting in the operational efforts of the strategic plan, along with developing a case for support later in the year. We anticipate the strategic plan will identify other project areas in the future.
Melissa Haynes and Elly Yach are the SVP Lead Partners, and Kitty Lau is the shadow partner working with SVP. The team will be coordinating projects and learning how this collective organization navigates coordination of services of children and youth in this region.
