How does the Sandbox Impact Program Work?

The Sandbox Impact Program is open to Project Teams supporting child and youth-focused initiatives in Canada. To qualify, applicants must form teams that bring cross-sector expertise to their proposed project. Teams must include:

At least one young person (aged 25 or younger) or youth-led initiative

AND

At least one charity, non-profit organization or foundation

AND 

Team members from at least two other organizations whose areas of focus are research, healthcare or policy.

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

The Sandbox Impact Program is designed to make it easier for Canadian child and youth organizations to collaborate across sectors. Working as a network, we do this in two ways:

1.     Supporting multi-sector project teams to accelerate progress on a specific issue in a community or area of focus. Based on your project’s needs and opportunities, this could include supports like:

• Microgrants

• Project coordination and knowledge mobilization capacity to complement your existing roster of skills

• Resources and support for meaningful youth co-creation to ensure youth perspectives and decisions are integrated into the work

• Access to a national network of child and youth health stakeholders to increase relationship building and knowledge exchange

• Platforms for knowledge dissemination

2.     Building capacity across the broader child and youth health and wellbeing sectors

The Sandbox Impact Program is facilitating knowledge exchange opportunities. In partnership with project teams, The Sandbox Project will convene a series of virtual knowledge exchange sessions organized around shared challenges and opportunities. These brief sessions will facilitate relationship building and cross-pollination of bright ideas from across Canada’s child and youth fields.

Approved organizations will be asked to partner with Sandbox and other project teams throughout the project cycle:

• Providing 2-5 staff hours every month on broader capacity building activities

• Taking part in relevant collaborative sessions and quarterly updates

• Helping us improve our program by giving us feedback and filling out occasional surveys

PROJECT EXAMPLES

Foundational components towards a child and/or youth health and wellbeing priority

• Scale up a program or undertake planning to boost sustainability

• Bring together partners to create an innovative proposal toward a longer-term goal

• Undertake a multi-sector environmental scan

Strategic communication that bridges information gaps among stakeholders

• Translate knowledge

• Develop a position statement or call to action

• Convene a broader group of stakeholders to address a specific challenge