General Asset Building
1. Tell the young people about assets, and see what they think. Consider leading activities that introduce children and youth to the assets.
2. Involve children and youth in planning and leading activities and programs.
3. Engage people from many backgrounds and generations as child and youth program volunteers so that young people have opportunities to build relationships with many generations.
4. Assess all your child and youth programming through an asset-building lens. In what ways does it already build assets? How can you make it even more effective in building assets?
Support
5. Create a climate in your programming that is warm, friendly, welcoming, and accepting of all children and youth.
6. In planning social activities, select those that provide children and youth with lots of opportunities for building relationships with each other and with the adults involved.
Empowerment
7. Provide frequent, ongoing opportunities for young people to engage in service to others and to reflect on their experiences.
8. Ensure that young people are always safe in your programming by selecting responsible drivers and ensuring that people who have lots of contact with individual youth have been carefully screened.
Boundaries and Expectations
9. Establish clear expectations and ground rules for children and youth who participate in activities, including how they treat each other and how they treat property.
10. Insist that all adult volunteers in child and youth programs and activities be positive role models.
Constructive Use of Time
11. Provide enriching after-school or summer activities for young people. Encourage members of the congregation to volunteer to share their hobbies and interests with children and youth.
12. Work to coordinate child and youth activities with calendars in schools so that young people aren’t away from home too many nights of the week.
Commitment to Learning
13. Sponsor a homework hotline or places to study after school so young people can benefit from more structure.
14. Make reading a regular part of child and youth activities. If some young people struggle with reading and are interested in extra help, find congregation members who are willing to tutor.
Positive Values
15. Regularly talk with youth about their values and the values of their friends. Give them a chance to “talk it out” when they’re struggling to put their values into practice.
16. Make religious education classes relevant to the young people by tying the learning to their life experiences and emphasizing the values at stake.
Social Competencies
17. Teach children and youth relationship skills, using approaches such as peer helping.
18. When focusing on a topic, teach specific skills for addressing the topic effectively.
Positive Identity
19. As young people explore vocational and life questions, help them search for things that offer a sense of meaning, purpose, and hope.
20. Help young people sort through their own sense of cultural heritage and identity.
