The 40 Developmental Assets

The 40 Developmental Assets for Youth were developed as a framework for positive youth development. Instead of looking at "deficits", asset-builders work on the healthy development of children and youth. Peter Benson, President of Search Institute states: "Pursuing the common good is the work of all the community's residents and institutions, and Developmental Assets become a language and tool for discussing the common good. When community members commit the building assets for and with young people, they nurture youth who are more likely yo grow in responsible neighbors, citizens, parents, and workers." The 40 Assets are divided into internal and external assets and include: Support, Empowerment, Boundaries and Expectations, Constructive us of time, Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies, and Positive Identities.

We believe that the world doesn't changed one person at a time. It changes when networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of a healthy community. We don't need to convince large numbers of people to change: instead we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to broad-based change.

The theme of the opening assembly was "Thriving Youth: Keystone to a Healthy Society." We heard from a 15 year old youth who decided at age 6 to save his money to help children in Africa have clean drinking water. Today Ryan has a world wide Foundation called Ryan's Well (http://www.ryanswell.ca/). We heard about a transformed neighborhood in Harlem, where door-knocking not only opened doors, but opened lives, hearts, and energy of people to work together for the common good.

Our goal for going to this conference was to develop our young adult leaders in order to help them serve our community through building Developmental Assets. Our staff had the opportunity to build important skills, and grow in their perspectives. They came back with new skills they now implement as they work with youth and families in our community.

Staff Members attending the 2007 conference (November 8-10) in Rochester, New York (see staff page for individual member information).