10-08-1997 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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H E A L T H Y Y O U T H / H E A L T H Y C I T I E S Building Youth Assets The challenges facing today's youth are brought to our attention every day--by the adolescents in our homes and neighborhoods and by the barrage of news on crime, teen pregnancy, drug use, and school failure. If you're a member of local government, figuring out how to address these challenges is part of your job. riradidonally, most of the strategies cities 1 adopt to address youth issues focus on identifying a specific problem (such as loitering or crime) and then designing a specific intervention (such as imposing a youth curfew). While these kinds of strategies have a place in public policy, they are inadequate alone for addressing the roots of the problems. What's more, efforts targeted co specific problems can quickly con- sume the available resources. As a civic leader. you may have wished for far- reaching solutions and asked yourself, "What can my city do to meet these challenges in a positive. effective way?" At Search Institute, we love to hear chat question. and our answer. in a nutshell. is: / Promote positive vouch development. While i local governments tend to focus on the economic and services in- d- astructure of a city, posinve youth development highlights che 'human development infrastructure" of com- munities and relationships. This ap- proach includes the building of youth's internal assets (e.g., self- esteem. readership. and decision - making ability). enhancing ram - ilv and ocher reianonships. and engaging youth in constructive programs and activities. By combining this oosinve approach with other city services chat focus on specific problems. communities can craft an er ecnve response co che complex cask of helping young people grow up responsible. competent. and canng. By Kay Hong of youth. In 1990, che institute introduced che conceptual framework of developmental assets, grounded in the extensive literature on child and adolescent development, resiliency, and prevention. Since then, the assets have been measured in over 350,000 vouch in hundreds of communities nationwide. These developmental assets, organized into eight categories (Support, Empowerment, Boundaries and Expectations, Constructive Use of Time, Commitment co Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies, and Positive Identity), range from "Parents are involved in youth's schooling" co "Youth is optimistic about his or her future." The research suggests that the more assets a young person has. che more likely he or she is co do well in school and be involved in service to che .. community, and the less likely he or '"`^ she s co engage in illegal or high -risk behaviors. Yet our surveys reveal that youth nationwide experience only about half of these assets. These re- search findings sparked our drive to mobilize all sectors of society to work together co improve the Weil-being of our children and :ouch. Pleasuring the well-being of children and youth Search Institute has a 30 -year tradition of in -depth research on factors chat contribute co or inhibit the heaithv development *" �j Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative • ° ON ;I Search Institute launched its Healthy Commu- nines • Healthy Youth INC • HY) initiative in March 1996. seeking to motivate and equip in- dividuals. orgainzanons. and their leaders to join together m nurturing competent. caring, • and responsible children and adolescents. HC • HY is a nanonal effort to bang Search Insnruce's paradigm for positive youth development co communises across che country. Based on che framework or-devel- opmental asses. ;he :ninanve A C G U S T . :) - Page 50