Youth Programs

Develop youth to have the skills for success in life.

Building Youth Programs that Make a Difference

Time spent with caring adults outside of the home and classroom can have a profound impact on how youth see themselves and the world around them. We know from our research that Out-of-School Time (OST) programs, ranging from mentorship, athletics, the arts or academic support, have the potential to build social and emotional skills that are critical to young peoples’ success.

Search Institute offers research-based tools and resources to translate the passion and commitment of your youth development staff into effective developmental relationships that help young people thrive.

Read about how YMCA Silicon Valley used Search Institute’s Developmental Assets to build a successful peer-to-peer program.

Professional Development Workshops

Developmental Relationships

This workshop introduces the five core components of the Developmental Relationships Framework with practical ways to put these concepts into practice.

Essentials of Asset Building

This two-day train-the-trainer workshop teaches you to effectively present the Everyone’s an Asset Builder and Sharing the Asset Message workshops to your own community.

Youth Lead

Middle and high school students are empowered to see themselves as leaders, recognize the leadership skills that they have and could develop in this workshop. They’re taught use those skills to improve their schools, programs, and communities.

Everyone’s an Asset Builder

As an introduction to Search Institute’s internationally-recognized research on the Developmental Assets®, this workshop teaches strengths and supports that enable young people to thrive.

Surveys

Developmental Assets Profile (DAP)

This survey measures young people’s internal strengths and external supports and their growth in these key areas over time. This survey is based on the Developmental Assets Framework.

Youth Assets and Strengths Survey (YAPS)

The YAPS survey is the DAP survey plus additional measures of program quality from the youth perspective. It measures the internal strengths and external supports as well as how your program is doing, from the perspective of youth.

Attitudes & Behaviors Survey

This survey is a comprehensive snapshot of youth across eight domains: support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity.

Download Relationships First, an informative and actionable publication based on our new developmental relationship research.