What is Archive Our Youth?
Archive Our Youth is a time capsule of youth and planetary wellbeing in a digital age. We aim to foster a respectful community space for sharing and exploring diverse voices on wellbeing, where contributions from youth around the world are welcome.
If you are no longer a youth, we'd still love to hear about your experiences from your youth, and any advice or resources you'd like to share.
How it started
In 2023-2024, we captured the thoughts and experiences of 25 youth and 12 community members from the Greater Toronto Area through interviews and talking circles. Additionally, Youth Advisory Committees (YACs) in Belize, Costa Rica, and Chile collected insights from their communities through interviews, talking circles, documentaries, and photo essays.
We created this Archive to share some of these stories. Looking back, we see that our research captured a moment in time—and so much has already changed! As we reopen the Archive in 2025 and beyond, we want to hear what young people are thinking and experiencing now: How do you define wellbeing? What supports your wellbeing? What challenges do you face, and what needs to change? What are your hopes for the future?
We offer our thanks to all the friends and community members who have allowed us to share their thoughts in this Archive.
Who Are We
The Archive was created through the Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing research project. Four Youth Advisory Committees (YACs) were set up to steer this research in Canada (Greater Toronto Area), Belize, Costa Rica, and Chile.
Each YAC worked with a research lead to design a unique set of interview and talking circle questions around the themes of personal, planetary, community wellbeing in a digital age. Each YAC created a unique data collection tool:
- In Belize, the YAC produced short documentaries that were submitted to COP28.
- In Costa Rica, the YAC led a creative camp and made a series of short films.
- In Chile the YAC used photovoice and created an intergenerational photo essay book.
- In Canada, the YAC envisioned the Youth Archive—a place to share meaningful content and invite more youth voices into the conversation.
The Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing is led by the Young Lives Research Lab and the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, with funding from York University's Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters and The Peterborough Hunter KM Charitable Foundation.
Youth Advisory Committee - Canada
The Canadian Youth Advisory Committee (or YAC) is a team of 4 young people who are passionate about helping and learning with the people around them: Zakirah (they/she), Sierra (she/her), Jessica (she/her), Polina (she/her).
With the guidance of their Research Lead, Dr. Roxy Cohen, this branch of YAC conducted interviews and talking circles with members of their communities. This local research project involved editing interview and talking circle questions, recruiting youth through their personal networks, conducting interviews, co-analyzing data, and selecting clips for the archive.
These young Canadians, ages 19 to 26, come from a unique range of backgrounds, cultures, and careers, and all share a desire to be an active part in bettering their world. They bring the perspectives of young people who have experienced the unique challenges and advantages of growing up in and around one of the most diverse cities in the world, the Greater Toronto Area. Their intention with this project was to reflect that diversity in the participants that were invited to engage in this study (though we recognize that with only 25 participants, our sample is not representative of the city but reflective).
Young Lives Research Lab
Founded in 2009 by Dr. Kate Tilleczek, the Lab is dedicated to developing culturally and youth-attuned research, education & dialogue across countries, ages, communities and sectors.
We work with/for youth and their communities to design and implement quality education that transcends formal schooling through integrated, holistic, land-based, culturally relevant and youth-centred education.
To learn more, visit: https://www.younglivesresearch.org/
Web Developers
We are so grateful to Araf A Alam for working patiently with us to turn our dream into reality—thank you for producing this amazing, responsive, and engaging website!
Thank you Vyjayanthi for designing the home page and working closely with Araf to help translate our vision into a working site.
