STRENGTHENING ORGANIZATIONS THAT SERVE YOUTH

40 Developmental Assets

New Data (PDF Downloads):
The Marquette and Alger County 2006 - Youth Asset Report
PSLAB Aggregate Executive Summary
Marquette-Alger County Sidebar Survey Report 2006

There are many things you can do every day to make a big difference for kids. How? By building "developmental assets" - 40 essential building blocks that children and teenagers need as a foundation for growing up. Research shows that these assets can have a positive impact on young people's lives.

Three Reasons For Building Assets:

The assets are powerful.
They give young people the strengths they need to make positive choices in life, even in the face of stress and pressure. Search institute research has shown that the more assets young people have, the less likely they are to engage in many high-risk behaviors.

Results of the 2000 Profiles of Student Life youth asset survey conducted in Marquette and Alger Counties are shown here:

	1-10 Assets	11-20 Assets	21-30 Assets	31-40 Assets
Problem Alcohol Abuse	56%	41%	22%	5%
Sexual Activity	39%	32%	19%	7%

When they have more assets, young people are also more likely to engage in positive behaviors.

	1-10 Assets	11-20 Assets	21-30 Assets	31-40 Assets
Succeeding in School	9%	22%	45%	59%
Maintaining Good Health	22%	49%	70%	88%

Too many young people don't have enough of them.
Search Institute has found that the average 6th to 12th grader surveyed experiences only 18 of the 40 assets. Furthermore, just 6 percent of young people have 31 to 40 of these assets.

The good news is that 37% of our youth, in 2000, have more than half of the 40 developmental assets.
You can build assets!
You can start now. Join with thousands of people and hundreds of communities across the United States that are committed to finding new ways to build assets for children and youth.

Marquette and Alger Counties are working to mobilize all citizens as asset builders... in churches, youth organizations, families, schools, law enforcement, agencies, businesses, and local government.

Be an ASSET for KIDS

There are many ways to build assets. What fits for you? Here are five steps that can help you focus on how you'll build assets for children and youth.

ACT NOW.
Don't wait until you have more time, more skills, more opportunities. Take a fresh look at how you can use the little opportunities that come up in your everyday routine.

SHARE YOUR STRENGTHS.
You already have gifts, talents, interests, and traits that can be valuable for asset building. Identify those and start sharing them with kids.

STRETCH YOURSELF.
It's good to start with things that fit into your everyday routine, but don't stop there. As you get more comfortable building assets, find ways to make it a more intentional, focused part of your life.

EXPERIMENT.
Try something new.

TELL OTHERS ABOUT IT.
The more people know about assets and start intentionally building them, the better communities will be for kids.

If you want to learn more about the 40 Developmental Assets, click here for a listing and description of the 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents.

Also, the following links will bring you to pages that list that group of assets for Infants and Toddlers, Preschoolers, Elementary, and Teenagers.

Support them with your love, care, and attention. (Assets #1-6)
Empower them with opportunities to make a difference in their family and community. (Assets #7-10)
Establish clear Boundaries and have high Expectations. (Assets #11-16)
Help them find activities that make Constructive Use Of their Time. (Assets #17-20)
Nurture in them a Commitment To Learning. (Assets #21-25)
Instill Positive Values to guide them. (Assets #26-31)
Help them develop life skills and Social Competencies. (Assets #32-36)
Nurture, celebrate, and affirm their Positive Identity. (Assets #37-40)

Some things that are NOT REQUIRED to build assets: Being a parent; Being a professional working with youth; Being an adult (kids can build assets, too!); Being outgoing, athletic, charismatic, or famous; Having lots of spare time or money - Everyone can build assets!

Some information on this page is Copyright©1999 by 3M and Search Institute.
Used by permission.
Also Adapted from Starting Out Right: Developmental Assets for Children.
Copyright©1997 by Search Institute. Used by permission.

You can find more information about the 40 Developmental Assets
at our State of the Youth Report website.

For more information on the Search Institute and its publications,
visit the Search Institute website at www.search-institute.org