Join us for a deep dive into the DEV (Dynamic, Engaged, Vital) Lab project, where we explored youth employment and skills development across eight Canadian cities post-COVID-19. Our team at Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF) led on-the-ground data collection with youth in Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Moncton, and Regina.
Through in-person summits in Yellowknife and Moncton, we engaged youth, adult allies, and service providers in data walks and collaborative sense-making sessions. Together, we identified key gaps, developed community-driven solutions, and launched skill-building pilot projects now led by local organizations. Learn how data can spark meaningful change and create pathways for youth success.
Speakers will touch on the data collection and analysis process, strategies for engaging communities in meaningful ways, making sense of data in accessible formats, and translating insights into actionable outcomes through local partnerships.
Speakers
Sarah Armouch, Research & Innovation Director, Youthful Cities
Sarah is an avid learner with mixed academic and professional backgrounds. She completed her PhD at Open Lab at Newcastle University in the UK in July 2022. She holds a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics and an MPH, both from the American University of Beirut (AUB), and an MRes in Digital Civics from Newcastle University. She worked as a project and training coordinator at the Center for Public Health Practice (CPHP) at the Faculty of Health Sciences at AUB.
At Youthful Cities, she oversees and works on the research and innovation components of the organization's work.
Topics that Sarah is interested in and worked on are related to civic engagement, social innovation, youth innovation, solidarity economy, public health and sustainable development, and participatory and service design.
Aaliyah Lahai, Junior Project Lead, QUEST Canada
With a background in Microbiology and immunology and Social, Economic, and Environmental Sustainability, she's a systems thinker passionate about understanding the intricate connections within our social, environmental and economic spheres. Aaliyah is a community collaborator, often merging her interests in product design and coding to create innovative and equitable products and services.
Through her endeavours, she's had the opportunity to work on several projects and committees to address SDGs and development through interdisciplinary collaboration. The programs, digital products, and services created alongside her community produced thought-provoking discussions and revealed interwoven perspectives and experiences.
Sahar Bahramali Panah, Ambassador, Shad Canada
Sylvia Cheuy, Consulting Director, Collaboration, Tamarack Institute
Sylvia is the Consulting Director of Collaboration in the Tamarack Institute’s Learning Centre. She has spent more than 20 years as a changemaker and champion of multi-sector, resident-led change. She is inspired by the capacity of communities to innovate and advance creative solutions through collaboration.
Sylvia is a skilled and seasoned community change facilitator who brings both practical knowledge and first-hand experience to her work, which has included designing and delivering capacity-building sessions, both in person and virtually, to clients across North America as well as in Singapore, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Savroop Shergill, Manager of Communities, Communities Building Belonging and Community Climate Transitions, Tamarack Institute
Savroop Shergill (she/they) is the Manager of Communities for the Community Climate Transitions and Communities Building Belonging teams at Tamarack. Sav is committed to decolonial praxis, abolitionism, and third world and Black feminist principles. She is a registered Social Worker and community organizer. She has worked with survivors of gendered violence, houseless youth, immigrant communities, incarcerated folks, diverse faith communities and S2LGBTQ+ youth and elders. She is passionate about addressing and dismantling the various systemic barriers that marginalized youth and their communities face.
Sav lives and works on treaty Thirteen Territory, signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties, signed with multiple different Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. This place has been the traditional home and meeting place of Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. Tkaronto, colonially known as Toronto, is on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, Huron-Wendat, the Chippewa, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. In the Mohawk language, “Tkaronto" means "the place in the water where the trees are standing." She is passionate about addressing and dismantling the various systemic barriers to support climate justice and belonging work across different communities on Turtle Island.