A Wealth of Ways to Build Assets in Youth

Think back to when you were a child . . . . Was there someone in your community who believed in you or helped you in a positive way to become who you are today?

Today, with our busy schedules and a much more transient society in which neighbors might not even know each other, our children have lost something that we once took for granted. It’s the support network made up of all kinds of contact with adults--caring neighbors, coaches, aunts and uncles who share bits of supervision, mentoring or just hanging around. We call those types of formal and informal support “assets.” And making sure all of our young people get as many of them as possible is a job we all need to share.

At last month’s Youth Summit in Thousand Oaks, I spoke about how we can all work together to provide more assets to help young people grow up strong and confident.

The asset-building framework of positive youth development started with nationwide research done by the Search Institute in Minneapolis. It found that youths who make healthy choices (not smoking, drinking alcohol or using other drugs; not having early sexual activity; being competent, caring, etc.) had more assets in their lives than those who chose risk-taking behaviors. It also found that those who had a tendency toward violent behavior and poor academic success had very few assets.

The Search Institute drew up a list of 40 assets that apply to every socioeconomic, ethnic, religious and cultural group. These assets create the basic framework (much like the framework of a house) that determines whether a young person stands firm or falls apart when the wind blows. No matter how each youth’s “house” might be “decorated” with individual traits such as personality, ethnicity, culture or spiritual beliefs, every young person needs a strong and essentially similar framework.

The Search Institute’s 40 developmental assets are broken into eight categories. Here are brief descriptions and local examples of each:

* Support: The ways we show and communicate with infants, toddlers, children and teens that we love, believe in and accept them. For example, Amgen Corp. and other companies encourage employees to help with science programs and other activities that support youth development. An adult becomes a Big Brother or Big Sister to a child or volunteers at a homework program.

* Empowerment: Children need to be treated as valuable individuals with strengths and needs, so they learn to value themselves. People who feel good about themselves can better help others. Cub Scouts, student groups and others collect food to help feed the hungry. Youths are put in charge of running programs, leading performances and making important decisions in their schools.

* Boundaries and expectations: Clear messages of which behaviors and activities are “in bounds” and which are “out of bounds” need to be sent and enforced. The same messages need to be repeated everywhere the child and youth goes. The no-smoking campaign targeting youth includes media messages and billboards that say smoking makes you look old and ugly, pictures of cool teen stars who have chosen not to smoke, stores not selling cigarettes to minors and consequences for underage kids caught smoking.

* Constructive use of time: Providing children and youth with opportunities to grow through programs and activities that require human contact. Examples: local kids involved for three or more hours a week in music, arts, sports, youth organizations, spiritual activities or civic activity; kids who work fewer than 15 hours per week; kids who spend 14 or fewer hours per week watching TV, playing Nintendo or similar games or working / playing on the computer or Internet.

* Commitment to learning: Developing a curiosity for knowledge, an ability to internalize new information and the discipline required for learning are important for healthy development. Some examples: reading programs offered at libraries and Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores for children through young adults. Adults reading to small children. Local businesses giving gift certificates to children who have read for a certain number of minutes.

* Positive values: Young children learn these by watching adults. Older youths need to be given opportunities to articulate and practice these values. Student athletes and student volunteers mentor younger children in the schools. First, they commit to being good role models themselves, then they pass those values on to younger children who look up to them.

* Social competencies: Building these assets is a slow process. Gaining assertiveness skills, making wise decisions based on solid planning, respecting and appreciating different cultural backgrounds and knowing how to resolve conflicts without violence all help youths to make positive choices. Conflict resolution programs and Diversity Inc. are two efforts in Ventura County through which interactive training programs are offered to promote tolerance, understanding and more peaceful ways of resolving problems at the junior high and high school levels.

* Positive identity: Very young children begin to develop these assets when they are able to make simple choices and master things. Older children and teens need to feel they have some control over their lives, that there is a purpose for their life and that they have the possibility of a great future. To foster this, local colleges and universities as well as business groups offer career days, math and science days and similar programs to help youths of all income levels become aware of professional possibilities available for them.

All of these are familiar to most people. The Search Institute has put them into a common language everyone can speak to help the process of making a difference.

This framework is being used nationwide to get states, counties and communities working together. It includes everyone--organizations, neighborhoods, institutions, employers, congregations, civic groups and individuals young and old.

Ventura County has numerous programs with the potential to be great asset builders, including scouting, Boys & Girls Clubs, youth mentoring programs, youth church groups doing community service, school volunteer requirement programs, career development programs, Big Brothers / Big Sisters and YMCA and park and recreation programs.

These can help young people value themselves as individuals and feel valued by the community, give them a feeling of hope for their future, make them feel safe and respected, and help them know they can accomplish great things.

Young people need to hear these messages over and over. The key to being a successful influence on young people is one-on-one contact, starting as early as possible. Research shows that the number of assets in a child’s life decreases as he or she reaches the teenage years, a time when young people become most vulnerable and need more mentors and people positively influencing their lives.

Building assets in youth needs to become a cultural value recaptured from our past and put in place in a new way. All community members, whether they have children or not, should see asset-building as part of their civic job.

Do you know the kids on your street?

Do you make an extra effort to talk to teens and get to know them?

Do you get to know the kids your child invites over?

Have you volunteered in a youth program in your city? If so, do you make an effort to know the kids individually or do you deal with them as a group?

Have you helped make it financially possible for a disadvantaged child to be part of activities in your community?

Do you make an effort to find a way to support youths in your workplace (by supporting employees who want to spend time with their kids or who want to volunteer with youth programs or by creating positive intern programs)?

There is so much we can do to help the next generation be successful and keep our great nation going in the right direction. With extended families and neighbors much less connected, the media much more influential and so many mixed messages out there for youths to absorb, it is even more important that all members of the community--not just parents and teachers--see making an impact in the lives of youths as the most important job they will ever have.

Someone did it for us; now it’s our turn.