Search Institute

We often say that Developmental Assets can be used by anyone working with youth-but how many times have you seen a group other than a school or a local community initiative working to promote the assets?MORE

Ready by 21 and Search Institute announced a contest, Take the Challenge Home, at the 2009 Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth conference in an effort to encourage HC • HY initiatives to start using Ready By 21 tools and resources.MORE

One of the most important steps in any asset-building program is evaluation. Often, however, this step occurs only at the end of a program, and it can be difficult to determine what should be done with the information to improve the program next time around. The Weikart Center is an innovative group focused on helping youth-serving organizations evaluate their programs at the point of service, then build improvement plans to modify programs. This sort of assessment is not simply an annual evaluation, but an ongoing intervention involving assessment, program improvement planning, training, and improvement.MORE

How do you prove that youth programs in your community are working? How do you gather data that will attract funders? How do you measure the impact your asset-building efforts are making on the community? These are the questions that nFocus Software strives to help communities answer with their TraxSolutions system.MORE

Are the young people in your community ready to tackle adulthood? According to research done by Gambone, Connell, & Klem (2002), only 4 in 10 individuals in their early twenties are healthy, productive, and connected to their communities.MORE

“All children and youth have a right to be safe, healthy, successful in learning and successful in life regardless of their language, culture, race, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or developmental abilities.”
— Santa Clara County Bill of Rights for Children and Youth

Santa Clara County, California, recently adopted a Bill of Rights for Children and Youth and, by doing so, have taken a major step toward implementing change within local government to create a more positive and supportive environment for youth.

“The bill of rights really is a commitment to our children and a commitment to consider the impact that budget and policy decisions have on children,” said Dana Bunnett, Executive Director of “Kids in Common”:http://www.kidsincommon.org/.MORE

Asset building is alive and well in the Pleasanton Unified School District of Pleasanton, California. The district’s asset-building organization, Club 40, involves students of all ages that volunteer to help organize events and programs throughout the district to help spread the word about assets and teach about service-learning. Jennifer Roush, a counselor at Foothill High School and the Got Assets? initiative leader, says that the club is “not just a leadership group.MORE

Here is an assortment of ideas businesses around the country have used to engage in asset building with community initiatives:

1) Show Kids You Care
Welch Cleaners in Wichita, Kansas returned dry-cleaned clothes on hangers featuring “3 simple ways to show a child you care” selected from Search Institute’s 150 Ways to Show Kids You Care poster.

2) Get in Touch
Initiatives in Monroe County, New York worked with their local Wegman’s Grocery stores to distribute 1.5 million plastic shopping bags bearing an asset-building message and local contact information to get customers involved with area initiatives.

3) Find out What’s Going on
Mason City, Iowa’s Youth Task Force surveyed local businesses about how youth—-as employees and customers—-were treated.MORE

What does it take to build Developmental Assets in children suffering from mental illness? That is the question that licensed mental health therapist Jim Still-Pepper has set out to answer with a set of trainings focused on mental illness and the assets.

Developed with Ohio’s Care Team Collaborative, Mental Health ABCs and Normal or Not? are two professional development trainings that focus on teaching teachers, youth workers, and other adults how to build assets in children with mental illnesses.MORE