The community of Charlotte County, Florida, has experienced a difficult last five years. On August 13, 2004, the area was devastated by hurricane Charley—buildings were severely damaged, businesses destroyed, and homes lost. The extent of the storm’s destruction included six schools that were beyond repair, making Charley the largest catastrophe to hit a school district until Hurricane Katrina. The community spent the next several years rebuilding their lives and, due to the construction boom in the county, began to see economic recovery as well. Yet, when a financial crisis ravaged the country last year, Charlotte County fell on troubled times once again. Many of the young families that were involved in the construction trades began moving away and those that stayed had trouble finding work. As Children’s Services Council and school board member Sue Sifrit describes, “It’s a very difficult economic time right now. There are a lot of businesses that are closing and those that aren’t are just scrambling and doing everything they can to keep in the black.”
During a difficult time like this, it is often beneficial for people in communities to band together and support one another, but, as Sifrit explains, Charlotte County needed some help doing this. The area is heavily populated with retirees and there is a pronounced divide between the older generation and children and families in the community. “There’s not a lot of good intergenerational conversation,” said Sifirt, “We saw this Generations Together as a really good opportunity to start those conversations about how we could work together and how there would be a benefit to both retirees and children.” So, thanks to the sponsorship of several community organizations, a Generations Together planning event was held in Charlotte County on March 26, 2009.
Sixty-five people attended the event, which was filled with food, music, and a lot of positive energy. People were given table assignments that split them up so there was a good mix of adults, youth, and retirees at every table. The community had no previous experience with the Developmental Assets, so Search Institute facilitator Shelby Andress gave an introduction explaining the assets before everyone dove into the planning. Sifrit recalls that people talked about how it was so interesting that the concept seemed relatively simple, yet it could be so effective. “A lot of different groups were represented and everyone could see a way to bring the assets to the groups they were involved in. There was a lot of excitement because people felt asset building was doable,” said Sifrit of the event.
Following Generations Together, the community held a smaller meeting to develop an action plan for Charlotte County. The smaller group gathering was another training done by Search Institute called Getting to Outcomes with Developmental Assets, which focuses on planning, implementing, and getting results with the Developmental Assets. The event generated a lot of good ideas and brainstorming and the group will gather again this fall to finalize their action plan.
Due to the timing of the event, Charlotte County has not had a chance to really start introducing the entire community to asset building. The summer months are a difficult time to organize, due to schools shutting down, summer vacations, and sweltering temperatures that often prevent people from leaving the air conditioned comfort of their homes. Even so, the county’s Children’s Services Council has started to do some initial awareness of the asset model. For example, the first school newsletter than goes to every student’s family will include an article discussing asset building. The group also plans to write a weekly newspaper column featuring one asset each week, visit community groups to ask them to commit to building one asset for a quarter, half-year, or entire year, and also make sure school social workers and guidance counselors are implementing assets in their work. Over the course of the next few months, the residents of Charlotte County will be introduced to asset building in several ways and the work that began back in March will start being realized.
The main difficulty Charlotte County had in planning the event was getting people to commit to participating in the entire day. Sifrit advises communities that are considering taking part in Generations Together to really explain the assets and the event to those you are inviting to participate: “If it Generations Together could be better explained to pique the interest of people to get them there, we could have had a better turnout.” Still, the event ended up with a good group of participants with a lot of diversity and many subgroups from the community represented.
Participating in Generations Together has brought a whole new type of recovery plan to Charlotte County—instead of building new houses, the community has started building new relationships between the generations. By incorporating asset building into existing community programs and initiatives, they will be able to renew their community without spending money. “One of the beauties of this [asset building] is that it does not require money, so it is kind of a bright spot when people are down and out. You can volunteer, you can be a mentor, you can work with a child, and you can make a difference doing that and you don’t have to spend a thing” said Sifrit. Charlotte County, although still suffering economically, is on the road to becoming an asset-rich community for kids.
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