Ten Organizations Honored for Outstanding Work Promoting
Positive Youth Development in Community

Denver, CO - Ten groups from across Colorado received Outstanding Asset Builder Awards at a statewide summit hosted by Assets for Colorado Youth in Copper Mountain on April 4-5.

Said María Guajardo Lucero, executive director of Assets for Colorado Youth, "All the award winners have used innovative strategies to effectively mobilize their organizations and communities around the developmental assets - a strength-based model of youth development."

Developmental assets are a set of opportunities, values and positive relationships that research shows all young people need in their lives to succeed.

The 10 Outstanding Asset Builder award winners are:

• The Cherry Creek School District, for embracing assets at the administrative level, with the School Board and Superintendent's full commitment, at the school level, with teams carrying out asset-based safety plans, and at the community level, with the efforts of parents and community leaders from the Community Asset Partnership group.
• The Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, a volunteer organization, for infusing developmental assets into effective parent advocacy programs across the state in order to improve the quality of education for Latino youth.
• The Community Justice Division of the Denver District Attorney's Office, for providing opportunities for young people from the North Denver neighborhood of Globeville to make positive changes and improve the image of youth in their community using assets as the basis of their work.
• The Foothills Parks and Recreation District, for empowering high school students to be asset builders and mentors in before- and after-school programs in South Jefferson County elementary schools.
• Parents and Communities Connecting Together (PACCT), a volunteer group in South Jefferson County, for building hope after the Columbine High School tragedy by quickly mobilizing to open the Columbine Connections community and teen center and staffing it with asset builders and victims advocates to provide a positive, safe and fun place for young people to go.
• Palmer Elementary School in Denver, for showing how a committed principal and a handful of asset champions among the staff and parents can successfully imbed the framework of developmental assets into a school community.
• Asset Builders of the Summit, for an exceptional job of promoting the asset message through the media, through communitywide annual asset events, and through partnering with schools, businesses, and other agencies in successful youth-focused programs.
• Thompson Valley Preschool in Loveland, for its innovative strategies to infuse developmental assets into an early childhood learning environment.
• The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) in Montrose, for recognizing the potential of the framework of the developmental assets for youth, and continuing to promote it through Teen Central, a clearinghouse for positive youth involvement in the community.
• The Colorado Trust, a private philanthropic foundation, for recognizing the potential that the framework of the assets could have on the well-being of the young people of Colorado, and for providing leadership in how the positive youth development movement would unfold across Colorado.

The Outstanding Asset Builder Award Ceremony was part of a two-day celebration marking the five-year anniversary of the statewide asset initiative in Colorado. Asset champions from more than 50 schools, businesses and organizations across the state attended.

Assets for Colorado Youth (ACY) is a nonprofit organization that champions positive youth development by increasing "developmental assets" in youth.

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