for Children and Youth - Ventura County Star

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16 Creating Asset Rich Environments for Children and Youth Be Part of the Call to Action For too long, adults in schools and in the community have defined our children and youth by “risk” characteristics instead of viewing each child’s unique strengths and assets. Risk factors include individual, interpersonal, and environmental characteristics that result from conditions of adversity such as poverty, illness, or abandonment. Focusing on risk factors centers the “problem” on the student or the student’s family, rather than on the school or community characteristics, practices and policies – factors that can be changed and improved (Brown, D’Emidio-Caston & Benard, 2001). Looking at students’ school and community connectedness is a way to focus on the positive relationships between students and their peers, other adults, and the school and community environment. Self-assessment: ◆◆ How has your school or community organization reached out to students who are non-traditional leaders? What techniques have you found effective in reaching and involving these students? ◆◆ How can we better recognize and build upon the strengths and individual assets of all our children and youth to keep them connected with their school and community? ◆◆ What can we do to improve our efforts to reconnect with our children and youth who become disengaged? ◆◆ How do our current policies and procedures prevent us from increasing youth participation in activities that involve them?
Linking the Challenges to Strategies for Action Creating Asset Rich Environments for Children and Youth 17 “Effective youth engagement efforts are driven by an intentional philosophy about change that young people and adults understand and own.” Pittman, Martin, & Williams, 2007 A Youth Development Approach The three strategies for Creating Asset Rich Environments for Children and Youth – A Call to Action described in the next section of this document are not independent; they are interrelated. All three must be part of a comprehensive, coordinated effort to reach out to and engage children and youth for their own health and safety; to build resiliency. Every one of us – parent, community member, volunteer, teacher, or service provider – can make an effort to make a difference by reaching out to one child every day. Youth Asset Development is both a philosophy and an intentional approach for providing youth with the critical supports and opportunities they need to grow and thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. “Youth development shifts the focus from deficits to assets, from fixing negative behaviors to building youths’ strengths.” (California Department of Education, 1999, pp. 4). The Search Institute’s latest research on developmental assets adds to the growing evidence that comprehensive, asset-based approaches to education and youth development have tremendous potential to contribute to the academic success of students from all backgrounds and in wide range of communities. Students with more environmental and personal assets were dramatically more likely to do well in school and avoid school problems. (Search Institute, 2003). A youth asset development approach “engages students’ innate resilience and their capacity for communication and cooperation, selfefficacy, empathy, problem-solving, self-awareness, and goals and aspirations” (WestEd, 2003). The following two illustrations demonstrate the degree to which students in Ventura County reported levels of total school and community assets that support resilient development. These data from the 2004 and 2006 California Healthy Kids Survey show that the total number of school and community assets, as reported by our students, has not increased. Key Term: Youth Development Youth development is “the process of promoting the social, emotional, physical, moral, cognitive, and spiritual development of young people through meeting their needs for safety, love, belonging, respect, identity, power, challenge, mastery, and meaning” (WestEd, n.d.) Key term: Assets Include external supports, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, and internal commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, constructive use of time, and positive identity. Key term: Self-efficacy A person’s perception of his or her ability to reach a goal; one’s judgments of personal capabilities to initiate and successfully perform tasks, expend effort, and persevere in the face of adversity (WestEd, 2003).
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