What is all this talk about Building Assets in Youth?

In 1990 the Search Institute (formerly the Center for Early Adolescent Research) began surveying 6th - 12th graders across the nation. What they found was startling and promising.

Through their research on the development and needs of 465,000 teens and pre-teens they identified 40 developmental assets that are critical to helping young people grow up healthy, principled, and caring. This report broke new ground in presenting a bold vision for youth in America - a vision that is being met in 10% of middle and high school youth.

At the heart of the vision are "developmental assets": positive relationships, opportunities, commitments, values, and competencies that are vital for helping youth grow up healthy, caring and principled. They measure 40 of these assets (there are probably more), and proposed that our nation should have a goal that every youth have at least 30 of these assets. However, research shows that the average sixth- to 12th-grade student has only about 17.

As people have discovered this framework and the actions they can take, they are inspired, energized, and challenged. Parents see their parenting task in new ways. School officials and teachers think about school and their work differently. Religious leaders see new opportunities and challenges for their congregations. Youth-serving organizations are reshaping their programs. Government leaders are rethinking how they provide services. Community activists and influencers are re-energized.

In some ways, the assets represent commonsense priorities for helping youth grow up healthy. Twenty of the assets are external: interlocking systems of support, boundaries, and constructive activities. The other twenty assets are internal: the commitments, values, and skills that guide young people in their choices. Many of them are things that people already talk about and do. What’s unique about them, though, is that the framework of assets draws together many different pieces so that they are understandable and make sense together.

Furthermore, research underscores the incredible power of these assets in young people’s lives. When young people have more of these developmental assets, they are much more likely to lead healthy, positive, productive lives. They simply do not make as many harmful decisions as youth who don’t have these assets. They have fewer problems with drugs, violence, sexual involvement, and depression.

Research shows us that when youth have more assets their risky behaviors almost disappear, and their positive behaviors increase. In short, increasing assets that young people experience decreases the crises they face, so the crises don’t consume everyone’s energy. Thus, by promoting assets, we can spend less time fixing problems.

Communities across Alaska are endorsing its framework for getting schools, communities, families and congregations to share the responsibility for educating children. If you would like more information on "Building Assets in Youth" please attend the YOUR COMMUNITY HERE Community Workshop on MONTH DATE, and TIME.