Empowering Youth demonstrates the value of youth leadership in traditional adult-led organizations
“Empowering Youth is a book of our time, describing children in their best light, reflecting the reasons why our world can thrive when we see young people as leaders.”
—Jenifer Fox, Purnell School President, Pottersville, New Jersey, and author of Your Child’s Strengths
MINNEAPOLIS: Imagine a future where every young person has the tools, the ability, and the desire to change the world. As thousands of children continue to doubt how they can positively impact change, it’s up to adults to infuse a sense of social responsibility in the impressionable minds that will become the caretakers of tomorrow. Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things (Search Institute Press, September 2008) by Kelly Curtis, M.S., offers youth workers, teachers, parents, and caring adults effective tools and resources to make the most of every opportunity to reach out to youth and expand their capacity for service and leadership.
Filled with motivating tips, activities, and real-life stories, Empowering Youth provides adults the inspiration they need to help adolescents and children reach their full potential. Deborah Reber, author of In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers, states, “Empowering Youth gives even the most seasoned youth-advocacy worker a solid dose of inspiration, and reminds readers of the true value of youth participation in creating a positive social change.”
Research demonstrates the value of a youth leadership approach. Empowering Youth is based on the Developmental Assets® framework created by Search Institute® as the building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.
Empowering Youth features five checklists to help groups think about how they currently support youth empowerment; more than 15 youth and adult activities to help individuals, communities, and organizations promote youth leadership; and firsthand accounts from youth and adults from around the world who offer practical ideas that every person can use to empower youth in ways big and small, and what they can do to increase their efforts.
Every young person is filled with potential for leadership to promote positive change, but young people need adults to help them fully realize their power. Adults need tools to help unlock the power within each young person, and Empowering Youth is a resource that equips adults to help kids succeed every day.
Kelly Curtis, M.S., is a school counselor, a writer, a speaker, and the founder of Empowering Youth, Inc., which publishes positive youth development curricula. Curtis’ work has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines including Boy’s Life, All You, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Poetica Grandmatica. She lives in New Richmond, Wisconsin.
About Search Institute Press
Search Institute Press is the publishing division of Search Institute, an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. To accomplish this mission, the institute conducts research, communicates new knowledge, and brings together community, state, and national leaders. For more information, visit search-institute.org.
Book Details
Title: Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things
Author: Kelly Curtis, M.S.
Publisher: Search Institute Press, distributed by Independent Publishers Group
Publication Date: September 2008, 6 × 9, 160 pages, paper, $14.95 (CAN $16.95), ISBN 13: 9781574822540
Subject: Education/Youth Leadership/Decision Making & Problem Solving
Available at bookstores everywhere and through Independent Publishers Group, 814 N. Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60610. Toll-free number for orders only: 800-888-4741. Visit online at ipgbook.com.
Publicity Contact
Suzy Winther, Sales and Marketing Assistant
612-692-5542 • suzyw@search-institute.org
