Search Institute’s Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative was officially launched in 1996 in an effort to inspire, support and mobilize multiple sectors to come together across their communities on behalf of young people. Since that time, over 600 communities have gained experience using the framework of Developmental Assets® to focus local efforts. In some cases, they introduced the Developmental Assets into an existing network. In other cases, learning about the assets led to the formation of a new initiative. In this month’s issue of the Asset Champion, we have asked several veteran initiatives to share what they have learned along the way.
Hampton, Va: A Legacy of Youth Engagement
The City of Hampton, Virginia was a major asset-building hub even before it was formally involved with the Developmental Assets®. Hampton, a beautiful city located on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, was one of the first cities in the country to create a department focused on positive youth development in the local government. Since the early 1990s youth have had direct input into the city’s planning and decision-making process through this department. Youth and youth-serving agencies gained an influential role in the politics and environment of Hampton early on and have been sustained as the Hampton Coalition for Youth ever since.
The Challenge of Change
Kentucky’s Ohio County Together We Care has gone through some ups and downs in the ten years since it 
started – but you wouldn’t know it if you took a snapshot look at the initiative. In 2002 it was awarded a Jostens Our Town Award for being a youth-friendly community. The initiative had six paid staff members and enough funds to take on almost any project they wanted. But a couple of years ago they lost a key advocate when the superintendent of schools, a strong asset supporter, left, and last year they narrowly missed qualifying for a Drug-Free Communities grant that had been a staple for the past five years. The school district asked the initiative to move to a smaller space and they had limited funds to pay the smaller, two-person staff. Despite these struggles, the initiative continues to be a strong presence in the community. “Sometimes change just happens and you have to deal with it,” is how coordinator and director Sheila Barnard sees it. And this is what Ohio County Together We Care (TWC) has done. In the process, they have found out that sometimes change is not all bad.
Old Saybrook, CT: Thoughts on Sustainability
There are two words that best describe the members of Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative in Old Saybrook, CT: passionate and committed. When the initiative was born in 1996, this small town in Connecticut had nothing special it could lay claim to for its kids. “Twelve years ago when we tried to start this program,” says Gretchen Bushnell, one of the original members of HC•HY, “Old Saybrook was not the happiest place. Kids felt alienated. Police didn’t have good rapport with the youth in the community and the government didn’t have good rapport with the kids.” To top it all off, the local youth center had closed its doors due to lack of funding. It seemed that the door had been closed on youth activities in the town. Then members of the community decided that something had to be done.
Worthington, MN, Engages Youth in the Community
The town of Worthington is located in an agriculture-based, rural area of southwestern Minnesota. Worthington is home to a Swift & Company meatpacking plant, owned by the third largest beef and pork processor in the world. As the largest employer in the area, the plant has drawn many new families to Worthington.
Creating an Asset-Based Community Initiative with a Zero Budget
Listen to “Creating an Asset-Based Community Initiative with a Zero Budget,” a presentation by members from the Amherst HC·HY Task Force at the 2007 HC·HY Conference.
Follow along with the presentation with the powerpoint printout from the Amherst initiative.
