Applying Knowledge

CHANGING TO A STRENGTH-BASED PHILOSOPHY MEANS STRENGTH-BASED PROGRAMS AND POLICY

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT=COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

ELEMENTS OF YOUTH ENGAGEMENT PROVIDE ROAD MAP FOR WORKING WITH YOUTH

HOW DO YOUTH BENEFIT FROM BEING INVOLVED IN AN ASSET-BUILDING ORGANIZATION?

Campaign Aims to Change Behavior by Changing Perspectives on Youth

The One Million Voices for Youth™ Campaign, launched by Assets for Colorado Youth, is a statewide effort to bring about a change in how we all live and work with the young people in our communities. By highlighting the strengths of the young people in Colorado we hope to cause adults to think differently about how they support and encourage young people. We want the focus to be on strengths and not just problems - opportunities and not just challenges. The Campaign is beginning in Colorado and is intended to spread nationwide

As part of the campaign we’re collecting a list of a million strengths youth have that make them special. We need your help to reach that goal. Join the campaign, download resources, read more.

Evaluation Tracks Growth of Asset Movement in Colorado and Impact of the Statewide Initiative
Download the summary (PDF).
Download the full report (PDF).

The culmination of a two-year evaluation by OMNI Institute, Creating Social Change: The Growth of a Statewide Movement details outcomes and processes used in measuring the spread of assets in Colorado. Released by The Colorado Trust, the initiative's funder, the study explores four main areas:

• ACY's role in helping individuals and organizations integrate the asset framework.
  
• The organizational and personal transformations that occur when the assets are integrated.
  
• The reach of the asset movement in Colorado.
  
• The impacts of asset building on Colorado youth.
  

The evaluation findings will help youth development researchers and practitioners better understand the asset-building process, its transformational power for organizational change and measures of success.

Youth Development Professionals Respond to Evaluation Results
In an event hosted by The Colorado Trust, the four panelists shared implications of the study findings to the sectors of education, congregations, city covernment, and health. Read more from The Colorado Trust.

Evaluation Tools

Asset Integration in organizations can be described as an upward moving spiral upon which groups move from pre-engagement to full engagement in incorporating a strength-based approach to working with youth.

Asset-Building Spiral

Youth Development = Community Development

As the Search Institute’s 40 developmental assets have become more widely recognized as a framework for youth and community development, the dialogue and debate have grown about the nature of asset building and its effectiveness, particularly in terms of demonstrating positive impacts on youth. Following are findings from The OMNI Institute's evaluation of the asset movement in Colorado.

The asset framework:
Weds youth development to community development.
The asset-building approach recognizes that youth develop-ment is community development. The asset framework suggests that when the assets of youth are strengthened, so too is the community. Similarly, the framework encourages community leaders to recognize that community development is youth development, that building healthier communities involves building the assets of youth.

Underlying principles of the asset-building approach suggest that when community members acknowledge that youth are resources in communities and tap their potential, both the community environment and young people will be enriched with assets and benefit from the healthier behaviors that assets promote. In the Colorado initiative, asset-building projects linked youth development to community development through community service programs, intergenerational activities involving the elderly or disadvantaged youth and youth advisory groups that influenced local policies and community-based programs.

Connects social change to everyday actions.
A salient finding of the evaluation was that learning and applying the asset framework made individuals more aware of the opportunities they had to positively influence youth on a day-to-day basis. An important aspect of the asset-building approach is that everyone has the potential to become an asset builder and make a difference in the community. The framework of the 40 developmental assets offers individuals simple steps they can take with youth to build assets. Application of the framework, individuals found, helped them recognize teachable moments, or opportunities to build assets, that they were not conscious of previously. These were often opportunities already embedded in their daily interactions with youth.

Bridges personal and professional spheres of life.
In the Colorado experience, asset builders found that youth development work did not stop when they left the in their personal lives made them more impassioned advocates of youth in professional settings. The asset-building approach, for many participants, was something that was internalized and applied in all spheres of life.

Engages young people in the enterprise of youth and community development.
By promoting the understanding that youth are important resources in the community, the framework encourages community leaders and professionals to ask youth for information, feedback and advice. In the Colorado initiative, asset builders created opportunities
for youth to participate in program development, to make funding decisions and to evaluate programs. Youth who took part in these activities were able to make positive contributions to programs and services that affected them, as well as other young people and
the broader community.

Opportunities to take on meaningful roles in organizations and communities allowed youth to enter domains often reserved for adults. Asset builders who worked with young people in these roles assisted youth in developing new skills and exposed them to experiences that would promote the development of assets. Asset-building efforts often placed youth in the position of educating adults, whether about the framework, youth perspectives or community issues. These experiences reinforced the skills young people were learning and allowed them to take part in forums as serious participants. In these settings, youth were active participants in developing their own capacity and in promoting the ability of communities to respond to the needs of young people.

Supports innovation in communities.Innovation represents a new idea or practice that offers opportunities for social change.
A significant finding of the evaluation was that the framework supported asset innovation, or new applications of the framework that could be replicated under similar conditions. Asset innovation often occurred when those who championed the assets translated the framework into their work with specific populations (e.g., Spanish-language families or disadvantaged youth) and within unique settings (e.g., an alternative high school or a health department). This is a process that some scholars have referred to as reinvention.

An important form of asset innovation that OMNI encountered during the evaluation was cultural innovation. When asset champions translated the
asset-building approach for use by different cultural groups, this involved adaptation of the framework into ideas and experiences that resonated with the group.

It is the strength-based approach of the asset framework that seems to promote asset innovation. The framework directs the attention of asset champions to the strengths of individuals and the assets available in the local setting. The strength-based approach encourages asset champions to adapt the framework to the life experiences of participants so that existing strengths can be built upon.