11-12-1997 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 che 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 w address these challenges is part of your job. aditionally, most of the strategies cities 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 che roots of the problems. What's more, efforts targeted to 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. effecnve way ?" At Search Institute. we love to hear char question, and our answer. in a nutshell. is: Promote positive vouch development. Whiie i local governments tend to Locus on che economic and services in- i-asfructure of a city. positive youth . development highlights che "human " development infrastructure" of com- munities and relationships. This ap- proach inciudes the 'building of youth's internal assets (e.g.. self esteem. leadership. and decision - making ability), enhancing ram - ilv and other reianonships. and engaging vouch in conscrucnve programs and acnvrnes. By combining this positive approach with other city services that focus on specific problems. communities can craft an effecnve response to :he complex cask of heiping young people grow up responsible. competent, and caring. By Kay Hong of youth. In 1990, che institute introduced the conceptual framework of developmental :users, grounded in the extensive literature on child and adolescent development, resiliency, and prevention. Since then. che assets have been measured in over 250.000 youth in hundreds of communities nationwide. These developmental assets, organized into eight categories (Support. Empowerment, Boundaries and EYpectanons, Construcnve Use of Time, Commitment to Learning, Positive Values. Social Competencies. and Positive Identity), range from '`Parents are involved in youth's schooling" co "Youth is optimisnc about his or her future." The research suggests chat the more assets a young person has. the more likely he or she is to do well in school and be involved in service to che community, and the less likely he or ,'"*•' she :s to engage in illegal or high -risk behaviors. Yet our surveys reveal chat 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 to improve the Weil-being of our children and :ouch. i Measuring the well -being of children and youth Search Institute has a 30 -year tradition of in -depth research on [actors :hat contribute co or inhibit the healthy development r! Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth initiative •1 Search Insncute launched its Healthy Commu- nities •Healthy Youth (HC • HY) initiative in ,;, • March 1996, seeking co motivate and equip in- dividuals. organizanons. and their leaders to join together in nurturing competent. caring, and responsible children and adolescents. HC • HY is a nanonai effort to bung Search Insncuce's earadigiri for positive youth development co communines across che country. Based on the framework of devel- opmental assets. the minanve Accc Page 58