Insecurity Inside Our Communities

We know our communities have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people, but those opportunities are time-sensitive.

There is only so wide a window to ensure youth feel supported, stable, and secure in our communities.

 
 

Organizations like the United Way of the Alberta Capital Region make a difference with programs such as All in for Youth (AIFY), which seeks to increase graduation rates and intervene with at-risk youth through a variety of supports.

The United Way and AIFY had mostly relied on anecdotal data, however, to compel growth. They, alongside RUNWITHIT Synthetics, saw an opportunity to show the full return on investment: the long-term impacts and outcomes of their mentorship, mental health, family support, nutrition, and after-school interventions.

 
 

Building our Future

Utilizing RWI’s Synthetic Twin of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region (EMR), we mapped both the present vulnerabilities in the area in 2022 and dialled forward, creating a Synthetic Population for 2044.

We looked at the potential effects of expanding the United Way’s programs: what if that expansion led to just a 5% increase in graduation rates? 

We quantified the return on investment the community would see from that program expansion, including increases in lifetime earnings, GDP, employment, generational shift, and more.

We also looked at the reverse: we quantified the cost of not investing in the programs, what it would look like if there were a reduction or even a cessation, leading to increases in poor health outcomes, addition, incarceration, and even loss of life.

 
 
 
 

Why Interventions Matter

That proposed 5% increase? Using our modelling and dialled-forward Synthetic Population, we demonstrated how a 5% increase in graduation meant 60,000 more high school graduates, 4,800 more people employed in the EMR, with an average increase of more than $13,000 in annual income.

All of that put together meant a staggering $881M more in GDP contributions, just in the year 2044.

Our work won a United Way “Big Idea” award, as well as placing top five in the Telus Friendly Future Foundation’s Youth Liveability Challenge.

But most importantly: RWI was able to visualize life paths and generational changes, and show our communities the data-backed return on investment when it comes to supporting our youth.