Assets for Colorado Youth Highlighted As National Model for Statewide Initiative for Youth

Denver - Due to the enormous success of its Assets for Colorado Youth statewide initiative, Search Institute chose Denver as the site for its third annual national conference. The 1999 Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth Conference will be held November 11-13 at the Adam's Mark Hotel.

The conference brings together representatives from more than 450 asset-building initiatives from 47 states and Canada to learn from each other and re-energize their efforts to help children and adolescents grow up with the 40 assets, or developmental factors, they need to succeed. Conference participants - almost one-third of them young people - will engage in a number of activities, including youth-led seminars, youth and adult round-table discussions, team-building intergenerational games, and workshops for every segment of the community on how to build assets in youth.

"What's tragic is that Columbine and other recent negative incidents involving youth have become the illustration of what's happening with young people today," said Dr. Maria Guajardo Lucero, executive director of Assets for Colorado Youth. "But what's encouraging is that Colorado has been chosen as a site for the national Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth Conference because of the great work in Colorado communities. Assets for Colorado Youth is supporting the positive development of Colorado's young people and making a difference in their lives."

Assets for Colorado Youth is a five-and-a-half-year initiative of Search Institute - a Minneapolis-based non-profit research and education organization - in partnership with The Colorado Trust, a private grant-making foundation. It is the first statewide effort to build assets in young people. The November conference marks the midpoint of the initiative, which seeks to help Coloradans identify, enhance, and build upon the resources youth need to become healthy, caring, and responsible adults. During its first two years, Assets for Colorado Youth has worked with over 100 organizations and 60 school districts throughout the state and has influenced tens of thousands of middle and high school students. In addition, the initiative has expanded to include more than 60 asset-building communities in Colorado.

At the conference, Assets for Colorado Youth will release its midpoint report, "A Journey of Change," which tracks the initiative's history and focuses on the ways asset building is being integrated in Colorado. The report describes the innovative ways that individuals, organizations, and communities are adopting the asset-building philosophy; the role of the Assets for Colorado Youth statewide office in asset-building efforts; and the relevancy of the initiative through first-person accounts of people whose lives have been positively affected.

"I want to thank all of our partners in businesses, communities, schools, and congregations across Colorado who have embraced and implemented the Assets philosophy," said Guajardo Lucero. "It is because of their support that we are a national model of how to make sure all our young people grow up with the tools they need to succeed."

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