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H E A L T H Y YOUTH/HEALTHY C I T I E S
<br />Building Youth Assets
<br />The challenges facing today's youth are brought to our attention every day —by the adolescents in our
<br />homes and neighborhoods and by the barrage of news on crime, teen pregnancy, drug use, and school failure.
<br />If you're a member of local government, figuring out how to address these challenges is part of your job.
<br />raditionally, most of the strategies cities
<br />I ' adopt to address youth issues focus on
<br />identifying a specific problem (such as
<br />Loitering or crime) and then designing a
<br />specific intervention (such as imposing a
<br />youth curfew). While these kinds of
<br />strategies have a place in public policy,
<br />they are inadequate alone for addressing
<br />the roots of the problems. What's more, efforts
<br />targeted to specific problems can quickly con-
<br />sume the available resources. As a civic leader,
<br />you may have wished for far- reaching solutions
<br />and asked yourself, "What can my city do to
<br />meet these challenges in a positive, effective
<br />way ?"
<br />At Search Institute, we love to hear that
<br />question, and our answer, in a nutshell, is:
<br />Promote positive youth development. While
<br />local governments tend to focus
<br />on the economic and services in-
<br />frastructure of a city, positive youth
<br />development highlights the "human
<br />development infrastructure" of com-
<br />munities and relationships. This ap-
<br />proach includes the building of youth's
<br />internal assets (e.g., self- esteem, leadership,
<br />and decision - making ability), enhancing fam-
<br />ily and other relationships, and engaging youth
<br />in constructive programs and activities. By
<br />combining this positive approach with other
<br />city services that focus on specific problems,
<br />communities can craft an effective response to
<br />the complex task of helping young people grow
<br />up responsible, competent, and caring.
<br />By Kay Hong
<br />of youth. In 1990, the institute introduced the
<br />conceptual framework of developmental assets,
<br />grounded in the extensive literature on child
<br />and adolescent development, resiliency, and
<br />prevention. Since then, the assets have been
<br />measured in over 250,000 youth in hundreds of
<br />communities nationwide.
<br />These developmental assets, organized into
<br />eight categories (Support, Empowerment,
<br />Boundaries and Expectations, Constructive Use
<br />of Time, Commitment to Learning, Positive
<br />Values, Social Competencies, and Positive
<br />Identity), range from "Parents are involved in
<br />youth's schooling" to "Youth is optimistic
<br />about his or her future." The research suggests
<br />that the more assets a young person has, the
<br />more likely he or she is to do well in
<br />school and be involved in service to the
<br />tea• community, and the less likely he or
<br />she is to engage in illegal or high -risk
<br />behaviors. Yet our surveys reveal that
<br />youth nationwide experience only
<br />about half of these assets. These re-
<br />search findings sparked our drive to
<br />obilize all sectors of society to work
<br />together to improve the well -being of our
<br />children and youth.
<br />Measuring the well -being of
<br />children and youth
<br />Search Institute has a 30 -year
<br />tradition of in -depth research
<br />on factors that contribute to or
<br />inhibit the healthy development
<br />i
<br />Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative
<br />Search Institute launched its Healthy Commu-
<br />�" nines • Healthy Youth (HC • HY) initiative in
<br />eta • , ;I March 1996, seeking to motivate and equip in-
<br />dividuals, organizations, and their leaders to
<br />join together in nurturing competent, caring,
<br />and responsible children and adolescents.
<br />HC • HY is a national effort to
<br />bring Search Institute's paradigm
<br />for positive youth development to
<br />communities across the country.
<br />Based on the framework of devel-
<br />opmental assets, the initiative
<br />AUGUST 1997
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