A youth-led think tank · Toronto & beyond

Youth insight. Youth action.

Loudly Labs is a youth-led think tank connecting organizations that need better answers with young people ready to shape them. We co-create research, dialogue, and summits that give partners evidence they can use and give youth a path to turn their ideas into projects, policy, and change.

See how we work Partner with us

Four Loudly Labs team members smiling at their table on the King’s College Circle lawn

A participant writes on a whiteboard asking “What change do you want to see in the world?”

Visitors and team members gather around the Loudly Labs table

A “Youth Voice, Turned Up” zine resting on a laptop

Our purpose

Young people live with the decisions. They should help make them.

When organizations build programs or policies for young people without them, they miss what is really happening. And when youth are asked for input but never see it used, good ideas and the trust behind them disappear.

We bring both sides into the work. Young people help frame the questions, share and interpret lived experience, and develop responses. Organizations get grounded research and practical recommendations; youth gain the connections, support, and opportunities to put ideas into action.

One connected process

Gather. Build. Learn.

We work with young people throughout the process: from asking better questions and interpreting what we hear to shaping recommendations, testing projects, and deciding what success looks like.

Make space for dialogue

We recruit and convene young people through focus groups, sustained dialogue, pop-ups, and youth summits, including across different backgrounds and perspectives.

Turn insight into action

Young people help turn insights into recommendations and youth-led projects. Partners can use the findings to make decisions, test ideas, and support promising solutions.

Measure what matters

We help partners understand what changed, including trust, belonging, and capacity to act, and use that evidence to improve their work.

Work with the lab

Have a question young people should help answer?

We partner with organizations developing programs, policies, campaigns, or products that affect young people. Commission research or a youth summit that brings young people into the process, produces usable findings for your team, and opens a path for youth-led ideas to grow.

Youth research

Focus groups, interviews, surveys, and analysis for organizations developing programs, policy, campaigns, or products for young people.

Dialogue & youth summits

Facilitated gatherings that bring young people and decision-makers together across disciplines and differences to surface ideas and build collaboration.

Insights & evaluation

Actionable briefs, recommendations, and youth-defined ways to measure whether an initiative is building trust, belonging, and agency.

Email us about a research project ↗

Inside the lab

Four ways to make ideas travel.

Projects for Tackling Wicked Problems and Growing Healthy Collaboration.

Dialogue · SDIT

Sustained Dialogue Institute of Toronto

Sustained dialogue brings people into recurring, facilitated conversations across differences. We use it to reduce polarization, find shared questions, and cross-pollinate ideas across campuses such as U of T, public pop-ups, and spaces with younger students.

Incubation

The Swarm Incubator

Like a bee swarm leaving its colony to build something new, promising ideas can grow beyond the conversation. We help youth teams develop those ideas into projects or recommendations for policymakers and partners, with panels and guest speakers bringing expertise into the room.

Cooperative Space

The Hive

An interdisciplinary hub for creative people to collaborate, focus on their work, and build relationships through social gatherings.

Research

Measuring What Matters

We ask young people how they want to engage and what meaningful change feels like. Together we develop qualitative indicators and practical ways to evaluate trust, belonging, agency, and other outcomes that numbers alone can miss.

Why we started

Building for a better world.

We met at the University of Toronto and kept returning to the same question: how do we move from polarization and disconnection toward something people can build together?

Our experiences in research, community events, policy, and media showed us a gap between what communities know and what institutions are able to act on. Loudly Labs grew from a shared conviction that dialogue should lead somewhere, and that people should help define the impact of the work they create.

The co-founders

Meet Isabella, Joonsup & Naz.

Isabella Wen

Co-Founder External

Isabella creates social-first content for morally ambitious youth and became obsessed with all kinds of media, expanding her advocacy to podcasting, research, and event hosting. She has been recognized by UNICEF Canada and The National Observer, and spoke on CBC The Current about emerging technologies.

Joonsup Yoon

Co-Founder Internal

Joon is a student from Korea studying how global economic systems shape everyday life and how structural designs make opportunities more accessible. He researches and works in trade, monetary policy, and institutional power as tools to improve daily life. In the past few years, he has launched a variety of community development and entrepreneurial programs for students.

Naz Karazeybek

Co-Founder Events

Naz is a youth advocate passionate about climate action, community building, and youth-led change. She volunteers with the UN through UNA-Canada and serves as Event Manager for a UN-affiliated sustainability club, organizing events that bring students together around environmental issues. After witnessing the devastating 2021 wildfires in Türkiye, she co-founded a youth-led environmental initiative and has continued her advocacy in Canada, working to create spaces for youth to drive meaningful change and shape the future.

The people behind the lab

Meet our team.

Fatima Khurram

Measuring What Matters Program Lead · Research Team

Fatima is a Pakistani youth leader, researcher, and founder of Voices Without Borders, a global youth-led platform connecting young people across borders. Her work focuses on youth voice, global issues, research, and creating meaningful opportunities for young people to contribute to change. She is passionate about bringing diverse perspectives into research and building initiatives that turn insights into practical impact. Through her global collaborations and youth leadership work, she hopes to make research more inclusive, accessible, and connected to the communities it aims to serve.

Ted

VP of Marketing

A Mineral Engineering student at the University of Toronto (3T0 + PEY) and Vice President of Marketing at Loudly Labs, Ted is passionate about sharing the organization’s mission and engaging others in its work.

Vedasree Konchada

Research Team Member · VP of Partnerships

Vedasree is the Founder of a chapter of State of Youth at Bangalore and is the Co-Founder of a digital workshop series called Mission Velora. She is also experienced in AI-powered full-stack development and hopes to pursue a career in international relations.

Thanisha

VP of Finance

Thanisha is the VP of Finance, diving into her first year at Rotman Commerce with curiosity and determination. With experience in DECA, law and debate, and a variety of extracurriculars, she’s passionate about finance, economics, and turning ideas into impactful action.

Guilbrhea Pacheco

Marketing Associate

Guilbrhea is an undergraduate student at the University of Florida studying Business Administration and exploring the intersection of data and social impact. Originally from West Palm Beach, FL, she is passionate about creating opportunities for the youth and developing opportunities that are accessible to underserved communities. She is interested in how research and youth perspectives can be used to better understand their experiences and create meaningful change. Through Loudly Labs, she hopes to contribute and create a space that empowers young people to have a voice in shaping the future.

Chaeeun Oh

Marketing Associate

Chaeeun Oh came across Korea International School, Jeju Campus, and her work in marketing caught on how communication and promotion can attract people and encourage participation. She is passionate about listening to others, understanding different perspectives, and helping address medical, environmental, scientific, and mental health issues around the world through collaboration and meaningful action.

Ethan Chen

Photographer

Triz T

Partnerships Associate

Funders & supporters

In good company.

Support and collaboration help youth-led ideas reach further.

The Starfish Canada

Ocean Action Grant

GLOCAL Foundation

TakingITGlobalCANConnect

Government of Canada

ESDC

Canadian Red Cross

Open-access research & tools

Measure the things that move us.

See how youth-led research can inform organizational decisions—from community impact measurement to practical municipal policy recommendations.

Research · Working Paper 01

Measuring What Matters

Youth definitions of relational impact in social change, based on a participatory research pilot in Metro Vancouver.

Read the working paper

Applied tool · v1.0

Relational Impact Measurement Toolkit

A practical framework organizations can use to bring youth-defined indicators into evaluation and program design.

Open the toolkit

Commissioned policy brief · Vancouver

Youth Priorities for Parks & Recreation

Focus group findings for Vancouver Park Board commissioner candidates, prepared through the BC Youth Council. Young people identified priorities in green space, affordable recreation, mobility, and civic participation, with concrete policy recommendations.

Read the youth policy brief

Research · Working Paper 02

What Change Do We Want to See in the World? Exploring Public Responses Through a Literature-Informed Overview

Twenty answers from a public board at King’s College Circle, University of Toronto, read alongside existing research on climate, gender equality, peace, public services, youth civic engagement, and well-being.

Read the working paper