Chinatown Youth Initiatives Impact Study
Chinatown Youth Initiatives (CYI) is a youth-led organization rooted in New York City’s Chinatown. Its programs help Asian American and underrepresented youth strengthen their sense of identity, belonging, and civic leadership in a rapidly shifting urban landscape.
CYI partnered with Thicket Labs—where TLC founder Deepthi Welaratna originally designed and delivered this project—to understand how its programs were shaping personal growth, social connection, and youth wellbeing. This case study reflects that work, now shared as part of Tiny Little Cosmos’ portfolio of systems-change, evaluation, and collaborative design capabilities.
Motivation
Asian American youth in dense urban centers face unique stressors: intergenerational pressures, cultural identity conflicts, academic expectations, and the broader mental health crisis affecting young people nationwide. CYI wanted a way to measure how its programming supported participants in navigating these pressures—emotionally, socially, and culturally.
The goal:
Create a short-term impact evaluation that captures identity development, emotional wellbeing, and community connection, while also giving youth participants tools for self-reflection.
The result was a dual-impact system:
a self-monitoring and communication tool for CYI youth
and a program evaluation for CYI’s funders, donors, and long-term strategy
Approach
A Participatory, Youth-Centered Evaluation
We designed an approach that respected how young people actually experience identity, place, and agency. Rather than relying on high-level metrics alone, the evaluation centered youth voices and invited them into a process of exploration and self-understanding.
Cognitive Mapping Workshop
CYI participants completed an online cognitive mapping questionnaire that linked their responses to a digital mapping interface. During the workshop, youth explored:
the places in their lives that generated comfort, stress, pride, or pressure
their sense of agency within those environments
how identity is shaped through relationships, routines, and urban space
Seeing their emotional geographies visualized sparked powerful conversations about how they move through the world—and how they could create stronger environments for their own growth.
Mixed-Method Data Collection
The evaluation combined:
digital and paper surveys
identity and social connection measures
data visualization tools
structured group discussions
stakeholder engagement with CYI organizers
This allowed us to capture both the internal shifts youth were experiencing and the external conditions influencing their wellbeing.
Data Visualization & Sensemaking
Using The Possibility Engine™, we transformed raw data into interactive maps that highlighted relational dynamics, influences, and identity factors. Youth explored these maps firsthand, while CYI staff used the visualizations to inform program design and community engagement strategies.
Outcomes
Deeper Self-Understanding Among Youth
Participants reported clearer insight into their cultural, personal, and social identities. Many described new awareness around how environments and relationships shaped their wellbeing—and how to advocate for themselves within those spaces.
Stronger Program Alignment & Iteration
CYI used the visualization insights to refine its approach, tailoring support structures to the real emotional and relational experiences of its youth members.
A Scalable Model for Youth Wellbeing Measurement
The evaluation demonstrated how The Possibility Engine™ can serve as a flexible wellbeing measurement tool—one that builds shared understanding between youth and service providers, strengthens safe spaces, and supports community-rooted program design.
Leadership & Impact
This project—conceived and delivered under the Thicket Labs banner—showcases TLC’s commitment to systems thinking, collaborative intelligence, and youth-centered evaluation. It blended facilitation, qualitative insight, and innovative data visualization to help CYI:
illuminate the interior lives of its participants
understand how identity formation unfolds in urban youth
and articulate a compelling story of impact to partners and funders
As part of the Tiny Little Cosmos portfolio, this case study represents the kind of thoughtful, equity-focused, relationship-rooted work we continue to champion: helping organizations understand the emotional terrain of their communities and create pathways toward belonging, wellbeing, and empowered youth leadership.
