Engaging adults is one of the five action strategies that Search Institute promotes as a step towards transforming communities on behalf of children and youth. Awareness events can start this process, but what comes next? In this issue you will have a chance to learn about strategies that community initiatives are using to continue reaching out to adults. You will also see examples of what sustained adult engagement looks like. Let us know what you think in our brief survey at the end of this issue, and watch for our next issue, focusing on another action strategy, mobilizing young people.
Asset Champions
“When I think about Asset Champions, I think about superheroes,” observed St. Louis Park high school senior Laura at an Asset Champion meeting in her community. “We should have someone dress up as a superhero and talk about what it is to be an Asset Champion.” This is how it came about that the mayor of St. Louis Park found himself dressed as a superhero in a red cape and mask, along with his sidekick, Children First co-chair and high school senior Erica, talking about what it means to be an Asset Champion for the launch of Children First’s new Asset Champions Network last January.
Community Maker Kelly Noftz: Creating positive waves throughout Almaden
You never really know the ripple of influence your actions have on the world around you until a group of your biggest fans is asked to tell a story that sums up the 
kind of person you are. It is then that you see the wave you created crash to the shore, to the delight of those close enough to see its surge and hear its roar.
While most of us create a ripple tame enough for young children to frolic in, Almaden’s Kelly Noftz creates the kind of wave that beckons surfers worldwide and leaves homeowners scurrying for sandbags.
Take a Second. Make a Difference.
By 2004, Hudson, Ohio’s Community First, an initiative focused on teen drug and alcohol use prevention, had become mostly dormant. But in the four years since then, a group of philanthropic businessmen have helped re-invigorate the initiative, Community First has become a highly visible organization in Hudson. Co-coordinator Laura Gasbarro estimates that nearly everyone in the town of roughly 22,500 knows what Community First is and most know what the Developmental Assets® are. The work that she and fellow co-coordinator Cheryl Rauch have done, says Gasbarro, is all based around an action plan that seeks to engage the many facets of community in Hudson.
Check out the full page advertisement for the Take a Second. Make a Difference campaign
Click here for the letter to the editor published in Hudson’s local newspaper
