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CONTENTS
One
Million Voices for Youth: Recognizing All Youth Have Strengths
Take
Action for Youth: Join the One Million Voices Campaign
Strengths
of Youth, Strengths of Community
Praise
More; Criticize Less: What Differentiates the Voices of Youth?
Saluting Campaign
Participants
Thank you to the schools, businesses, agencies and organizations that
are already participating in the One Million Voices for Youth Campaign!
See
who's already participating.
ACY Welcomes Campaign
Co-Chairs
ACY would like to welcome our summer interns, Thomas Cordova, a junior
at Univ. of Notre Dame and Sonya Palafox, a junior Univ. of Denver,
to the team.
Both natives of Denver,
Thomas and Sonya are co-chairing the One Million Voices for Youth Campaign
and are providing much appreciated support in presenting the campaign
and gathering voices in Denver Metro and Front Range communities.
The
40 developmental assets, identified by Search Institute, are the building
blocks of healthy youth development that young people need in order to
thrive. The assets are comprised of the supportive relationships, meaningful
opportunities and positive values all young people need to succeed-such
as family support, a caring school climate and having integrity and self-esteem.
The developmental
asset framework has helped move the youth development field from a deficit
focus-or thinking about what behaviors need to be changed in youth-to
a strength-based focus that promotes a vision for building healthy young
people.
40 Developmental Assets
© 1997. Search Institute:
www.search-institute.org
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One Million Voices for Youth: Recognizing All Youth Have Strengths
The One Million
Voices for Youth Campaign™, developed by Assets for Colorado
Youth (ACY), is an opportunity for both young people and adults to change
their thinking from youth as being full of problems, to being full of
potential.
"We know all
young people have strengths," says Dr. María Guajardo Lucero,
ACY executive director. "But in our society, we're so busy labeling
who is broken or who is at risk, we overlook the positive qualities that
young people have to offer."
"My ability
to have compassion for my fellow peers." - Jessica, 14
In a 1999 survey by
Public Agenda, more than 70 percent of adults polled used negative terms,
such as "rude," "wild" and "irresponsible,"
to describe American teenagers.
"Our hope is
to change behavior by changing perspectives," says Guajardo Lucero.
"There's power in looking at the strengths young people provide in
their communities. Naming strengths can start a wheel in motion."
Through the campaign, ACY seeks to increase the support youth have in
the community and bring about a change from the policy leadership level
to the grassroots community level. Formation of a positive vision of young
people will strengthen support for programming-such as juvenile justice
diversion and after-school initiatives- and help youth-serving organizations
further align activities to build on youths' strengths.
"I love
to read 1,000-page books." - Cassandra, 12
An American Psychological
Association report on adolescents cited the need for adults to "foster
the development of adolescents' sense of competence," noting: "Even
passing comments can mean a great deal to a young person, especially one
who may be getting little in the way of positive feedback."
When adults reach
out to youth with encouragement and guidance, youth feel supported and
valued in their communities. Findings of an evaluation of the asset movement
in Colorado indicate that when community members acknowledge youth as
resources and tap their potential, both the community and young people
are enriched (OMNI 2002).
"I am good
at soccer and I am bilingual." - Jesus, 8
By supporting and
valuing our young people, we are building their developmental assets,
and helping to ensure their success.
For more information
on the One Million Voices for Youth Campaign, visit the campaign website:
www.millionvoicesforyouth.org,
or call toll-free: 1-888-543-7871.
Take
Action for Youth: Join the One Million Voices Campaign
Imagine collecting
one million of anything-one million coins, one million stamps, one million
baseball cards… It would be hard to do on your own. That's why we
need everyone's help to reach our goal of collecting one million strengths
of Colorado's young people.
Participation is easy!
Here's what you can do to join the One Million Voices for Youth Campaign:
- Download
copies of the campaign forms
or call the ACY office.
- Ask members of
your family, organization or business to fill them out.
- Fax or mail the
forms to Assets for Colorado Youth (fax: 303-832-3280; mail: ACY, 1580
Logan Street, #700, Denver, CO, 80203). Or, respond by email: millionvoicesfor
youth@buildassets.org.
- Share the campaign
forms with others. Encourage them to participate.
- Don't wait to get
started. Do it today!
Use the One Million
Voices for Youth Campaign as a strategy to mobilize your community organization,
school, church or place of employment to support young people.
By highlighting the
multitude of strengths young people in our lives possess, both youth and
adults benefit.
ACY will present the
impressive list of Colorado youths' strengths to the Governor, the Board
of Education, legislators and other policy-level officials who make decisions
affecting young people. ACY is delivering the message that Colorado youth
are incredible resources who need to be treated as the assets they are.
Million Voices
for Youth campaign forms are available in Spanish.
Call toll-free: 1-888-KID-7871, or download them from millionvoicesforyouth@buildassets.org.
Strengths
of Youth, Strengths of Community
The Northeast Women's
Center in Denver has been actively working at building sustained community
engagement. Through a program called Story Circle, the Center is capturing
individual's perceptions of their communities.
Vittoria Whitsett, program staff at the Northeast Women's Center, learned
of the Million Voices Campaign and saw the opportunity for using the collection
of voices around youths' strengths as a vehicle for reframing community
perceptions. Along with co-facilitator Valerie Hawthorne-Bey, Vittoria
launched the Story Circle program by inviting the participants to add
their voices to the Million Voices Campaign, asking: "What are some
of the strengths of young people in Colorado?"
Participants offered
that youth in Colorado are inquisitive, creative, willing to try new things,
and smart.
This collection of
youths' strengths was the foundation for the next topic of inquiry around
intergenerational communication. When asked to identify individual actions
to be taken, participants committed to being positive role models, sharing
their stories, introducing themselves to their neighbors and coordinating
block parties on their streets.
The Million Voices
Campaign at the Northeast Women's Center provided a catalyst for strengthening
community engagement.
This is just one example
of how naming youths' strengths can serve to reframe conversations, promote
individual action and support strength-based approaches to youth development
and sustained community engagement.
Praise
More; Criticize Less
What differentiates
the voices of youth? Are the strengths of incarcerated youth significantly
different than the voices of academically successful students?
Through the Million
Voices for Youth Campaign, the collection of voices from diverse youth
is beginning to shed light on these questions. What is being uncovered
is that youth are quite willing to share what their strengths are and
that the strengths from diverse groups are similar.
Three of the following
strengths were offered by youth in detention and three were offered by
youth actively engaged in school activities.
- I help people at
school.
- I'm good at computers.
- I get good grades.
- I'm nice to everyone.
- I am always ready
for a challenge.
- I have a sense
of humor.
It is virtually impossible
to separate the strengths by youth group.
Youth, whether at-risk or thriving, are reporting that they have strengths
to tap. Each of these strengths provides an opportunity to build upon.
Unfortunately, some youth are given few chances to share what they have
to offer.
By taking a strength-based
approach to interacting with young people, we can look for ways to praise
more and criticize less; to do less correcting and more connecting.
By building on youths'
strengths, we are building their self-esteem.
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