Jim Conway, Senior Trainer

Jim Conway
Search Institute Senior Trainer
Home State: Wisconsin

Listen to Jim introduce the Nurturing the Spirit of Youth training

Professional Experience

Jim Conway is an author, consultant, and veteran trainer with over 20 years’ experience providing training and consultation to youth-serving professionals and volunteers in organizations in the United States and abroad. He also served for over 15 years in leadership roles of various programs for children and adolescents.

Contributions to Search Institute

As a senior trainer, Conway represents Search Institute as a public speaker and trainer for organizations and communities interested in building Developmental Assets for and with youth, starting a community-wide initiative, or creating organizational and community change on behalf of youth. He also provides leadership in the design and development of many of Search Institute’s core training offerings.

Conway’s other areas of special expertise include:

  • early adolescent development;
  • parent education;
  • program planning and assessment;

Major Trainings and Presentations

Jim Conway has delivered hundreds of presentations, including both workshops and keynote addresses. In addition to numerous local and state organizations and institutions, some of the national organizations for which Conway has made major presentations include: Children’s Defense Fund, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), National School-Age Child Care Alliance, Salvation Army, YMCA of the USA, Public/Private Ventures, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Work/Family Directions, Family Resource Coalition, National Park and Recreation Association, Boys Town, International Reading Association, National Middle School Association, Center for Ministry Development, and National 4-H.

Conway has also served as a member of the national training team for the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, Wellesley College, Massachusetts.

Jim in the News

Curriculum and Training Design

  • Lead designer, Raising Healthy and Caring Kids, (YMCA Canada /Search Institute 2009)
  • Lead trainer and designer, Nurturing the Spirit of Youth: Framing a Conversation, A translation of global research findings into a core training design. Search Institute’s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, 2008-2010.
  • Lead trainer and designer, More Than Just a Place To Go: Using Developmental Assets to Strengthen Your Youth Program, based on a two-year study of asset integration into youth-serving programs in three US cities (Search Institute, 2004)
  • Coordinator and lead trainer/designer, Habits of the Heart Project on Youth as Resources, Search Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2000–December 2001
  • Lead trainer and designer with training delivery in seven cities, Uniting Congregations for Youth Development Project, Search Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 1995–October 1999
  • Design team, Middle School Youth Project, Work/Family Directions, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, 1995–1998
  • Revision teams and lead trainer (including training of trainers), Living with 10- to 15-Year-Olds: A Parent Education Curriculum and 3:00 to 6:00 PM: Planning Programs for Young Adolescents, Center for Early Adolescence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1987–1995

Major Publications

  • More Than Just a Place To Go Video Self-Study Guide (Search Institute, 2007) A self-guided process of learning and discovery for staff and volunteers at the Tiger Woods Learning Center, Anaheim, CA
  • Essentials of Asset Building: A Curriculum for Trainers, (Search Institute, 2002, 2005, 2008) Lead curriculum writer
  • More Than Just a Place To Go: Using Developmental Assets to Strengthen Your Youth Program, co-authored with Kristin Johnstad, Yvonne Pearson (Search Institute 2004)
  • Integrating Assets into Congregations: A Curriculum for Trainers_ (Search Institute, 2000)
  • Get On Board_ (co-authored with Jolene L. Roehlkepartain, Search Institute, 1999)
  • Building by Design: Creating Democratic Communities in Programs for 10- to 15-Year-Olds_ (Contributing writer on adolescent developmental issues, Work/Family Directions, Boston, Massachusetts, 1998)
  • “Concepts About 10- to 15-Year-Olds” (Review and revision of research base for Planning Programs for Young Adolescents curriculum, Center for Early Adolescence, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1994)

Professional History

Before he began training and consulting for Search Institute in 1995, Conway served for eight years as director of training at the Center for Early Adolescence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to his work with the Center, he spent over 15 years in youth work, primarily in New York City. Some of his positions included:

  • Camp Director, Recreation Director, and Co-Director of Youth Cross-Country Camping Program, Shelley’s All-Stars, Inc., New York, New York;
  • Recreation Consultant, Corlears School and Public School #3, New York, New York;
  • Co-Director, Teen Drop-In Center, Lower East Side, New York, New York.

Education

  • B.A. in speech communications, Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota
  • M.Div. in psychiatry and religion, Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York

Request Jim Conway for the following trainings by calling Search Institute Training at 800-294-4322 (outside the United States, dial 207-642-6270) Trainings, keynotes, and presentations can be customized to meet your specific needs and audience.

Keynotes and Presentations:

  • Introducing Developmental Assets
    Customized presentations and keynotes for any audience in your community
  • What’s Up with Our Kids?
    Have Jim present your survey findings to build shared understanding and action steps

Workshops:

  • More Than Just a Place To Go: Using Developmental Assets to Strengthen Your Youth Program
    Maximize the positive impact of youth-serving programs
  • Integrating Assets Into Congregations
    Harnessing the power of the faith community
  • Assets in Action: A Journey of Community Change
    Help develop a community-wide movement
  • Everyone’s an Asset Builder
    Motivate and equip individuals to be effective asset builders
  • Sharing the Asset Message
    Equip participants to deliver a variety of asset-building messages to multiple audiences
  • Youth, Money, and Assets
    Explore the mixed messages about money and open the dialogue between youth and adults
  • Youth Serve!
    Strategies for providing service-learning programs that are asset-rich
  • Youth Leadership
    Engage young people as active leaders
  • Nurturing the Spirit of Youth: Framing a Conversation on Spiritual Development
    Learn about Search Institute’s new global research on this critical dimension of life

Training of Trainers:

  • Essentials of Asset Building
    Create a local cadre of asset advocates equipped to deliver two core Search Institute trainings

Multi-Day Programs:

  • Generations Together
    Develop a shared vision and plan for growing an asset-rich community