Youth Participation in Focus: Understanding Active Citizenship through Qualitative Insights

Join Ooloi Labs for an insightful webinar on how qualitative data adds depth and meaning to youth civic participation. Learn how organizations across India are moving beyond numbers to capture the authentic voices, motivations, and impact of young changemakers in diverse communities.

In this session, you’ll discover:

  • The critical role of qualitative data in understanding youth civic engagement

  • How stories and lived experiences complement quantitative metrics

  • Methods for scaling qualitative insights without losing nuance or authenticity

  • Ways to translate youth voices into actionable policy and program changes

  • Strategies for building trust with young people so their participation truly matters

Key Insights from the Discussion:

  • The VIBE Report: Youth Ki Awaaz’s national-scale research capturing youth sentiment through combined qualitative and quantitative approaches

  • Reap Benefit’s Community Action Model: How youth-collected local data builds trust, mobilizes communities, and influences local governments

  • MAD’s Storytelling Framework: Embedding volunteer experiences and stories into monitoring and evaluation systems across 18 cities

  • Bridging Digital Divides: Approaches for reaching youth with language barriers and limited digital access to ensure inclusive participation

  • From Google Forms to AI: Practical methods for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing qualitative data at scale

In the webinar

Anshul Tewari, Founder and CEO, Youth Ki Awaaz

Anshul Tewari is the Founder of Youth Ki Awaaz (YKA), India’s largest youth-led media and civic participation platform, enabling contributors to share stories and insights that reach 20 million+ people every month. Over the past 17 years, YKA has built the infrastructure for civic participation: combining storytelling, technology, and civic data to enable young people, especially from underrepresented communities, to shape public discourse and influence policy.

Mannat Anand, Senior Director of Growth and Operations, Make A Difference

Mannat brings years of experience in youth empowerment, education, and social impact. Since 2012, she has led several strategic and operational initiatives for building a tech-enabled, scalable, and community-driven model to address intergenerational poverty. Her focus is on strengthening global partnerships and exploring tech-based innovations to amplify MAD’s mission.

Pooja Pawar, Senior Director, Reap Benefit

Pooja believes deeply in bringing equity across the different social and cultural strata of society and creating equal opportunities, especially for marginalised genders. Before joining Reap Benefit, she worked at Teach For India for six years catalysing their Alumni Impact in the Mumbai Region. At Reap Benefit, she manages community building initiatives, people and ecosystem collaborations.

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