Indicators
Halton Youth Impact Survey Results
Are recreation and leisure opportunities accessible to all children and youth in Halton?
Findings reflect the responses of 1915 youth in the 13 to 18 age range.
Availability of leisure and recreation opportunities
Satisfaction with the quality of recreation and culture facilities
Barriers to recreation
Systemic barriers
Young people living with a disability
Food insecurity as a proxy for inadequate income
When households have inadequate income, they may struggle to consistently afford enough food, leading to food insecurity. Inadequate income impacts not only food security but also other basic needs with health consequences beyond poor nutrition.4,5 Although we have chosen to adopt food security as a proxy for inadequate income, it is essential to recognize that it does not capture the entirety of a household’s financial situation.
1 The definition of disability employed here is in line with that adopted by UNICEF and described on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is a human right’s-based definition where persons with disabilities are “those who have a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (2006). United Nations. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-withdisabilities. UNICEF (2014). Definition and Classification of Disability. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/reports/definition-and-classification-disability
2 “Some young people go to school or to bed hungry because there is not enough food at home. How often does this happen to you?” and how often were the following things true for you in the past 12 months: “I ate only a few kinds of low-cost foods because we could not buy food,” “Our family could not afford the food for more balanced meals,” “I did not eat enough because there was not enough money for food,” “I ate smaller meals because there was not enough money for food,” “I skipped meals because there was not enough money for food,” “I did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food.” Our Kids Network (2022). Supporting Families to Champion Positive Youth Development: an outlook on youth’s experiences of discrimination, homelessness and food insecurity.
3 Tarasuk, V., Li, T., Fafard St-Germain, A.A. (2022). Household food insecurity in Canada, 2021. Retrieved from https://proof.utoronto.ca/ .
4 Ibid.
5 PROOF. (2022). Food Insecurity: A problem of inadequate income, not solved by food. FACTSHEET – OCTOBER 2022.
Limitations
- This bulletin covers only responses of youth in the 13-18 age range.
- Open invitation sampling strategy (non-probabilistic).
- Sample is not necessarily representative of all children and youth living in Halton.
- It is not possible to determine a response rate.
- However, considering the geographic coverage and the size of the final sample, it’s fair to assume that we have a reasonably good cross-section of children and youth living in Halton.
- A higher degree of diversity within this sample calls for caution when interpreting overall ratios. For more details on the composition of the sample see the sociodemographic table.
- The data are meant to provide a snapshot of youth wellbeing during COVID, and caution should be used when comparing across time.
- While each indicator is important, using multiple indicators as evidence of strengths and needs provides a more comprehensive representation.
- This is a self-report survey and several types of response bias have been identified related to self-report surveys. Use caution when interpreting the findings.
