Youth Summit - Building Assets; Youth Coming Together for a Common Goal

By Chelsea Parrish, 16 and Ben Brow, 15.

According to the Search Institute, youth with twenty-one or more of 40 Developmental Assets are less likely to engage in risk taking behaviors such as drinking or sexual activity than those with under twenty assets.

The 40 Developmental AssetsTM were created by Search Institute President and Founder Peter Benson. They are divided into two main categories, internal and external assets. In those two categories there are four sub-groups which contain anywhere from Four to six assets. Assets include things such as Personal Power, Other Adult Relationships, and Resistance Skills.

On October 30th over seventy teens attended a Youth Summit to discuss the results of the Profiles of Student Life Survey. The survey identified the percentages of students who had each of the 40 Developmental Assets. The summit was hosted by the Great Lakes Center for Youth Development (GLCYD) for eighth though twelfth graders in Marquette and Alger Counties. The goal was to identify the top three assets in two categories. Those they were concerned about, and those they were less concerned about.

Thirteen-year old Katy Martin of Marquette felt that attending the event was worthwhile.

“It’s really increased my knowledge of the values that are important,” Martin said “As well as the values that are lacking.”

The survey was given in 2006 to almost two thousand students in grades eight, ten, and twelve. The survey asked teens in Marquette and Alger counties about the 40 Developmental Assets, and which assets they considered strengths. After a day of discussion and activities they came to a conclusion. The top three assets considered strengths were Safety, Family Support, and a Positive View of the Future. The top three assets that teens thought needed improvement were Restraint, Adult Role Models, and Planning and Decision-Making.

“Many places around the country that do the Profiles of Student Life Survey will, when they get the results back, have an event like this,” said Paul Olson, a Youth Development Associate from GLCYD.

Olson’s role at the summit was to coordinate discussions about the assets, as well as facilitate groups reviewing the survey. He feels that the youth input will be very relevant to the future development of assets in the community.

“It seems only appropriate that we would want to have feedback directly from the primary stakeholders,” Olson said, “which are the young people themselves.”

The Upper Peninsula has various youth summits throughout the year, but this was the first one to focus specifically on the 40 Developmental Assets. Sixteen-year old Joe Burke of Ishpeming feels that the summit should be held annually.

“Problems can change every year,” said Burke, “we should try to figure them out.”

Besides figuring out the top strengths and concerns at the summit, Olson hopes that youth learned some important lessons.

“I hope that young kids learn from this event that they can advocate for themselves,” explained Olson. “They have the ability and even the responsibility to participate in how their community is run, and to have a responsibility to speak up about what goes on in the youth environment in our community, and to make their voices heard, to speak directly to adults and to community members, and to be able to say, ‘This is what I want my environment to look like, and the environment for younger kids who are going to come up behind me,’” Olson added.

Seventeen-year-old Sean Corcoran of Ishpeming feels that the youth attendees aren’t the only ones who learned something from the event.

“The adults that were here (also learned),” Corcoran said. “Especially when it comes to communicating with the teens and giving them opportunities to do things and really understanding that there are the ‘good kids’ out there,” he added.

One of the results of the summit GLCYD hoped would happen was that information about the assets would spread into other schools and communities and help create asset-builders. Eighteen-year-old Caleb Carlson of Negaunee thinks that everyone can be an asset-builder and compel change in their own schools or communities.

“I’d just encourage everybody to make a contribution to society. Lots of people think that what they do won’t or can’t make any kind of a difference in their community, but it will,” Carlson explains. “If someone stands up for something that they believe is right, or if there’s an issue someone disagrees with or thinks that something should be handled much stronger, than I definitely encourage anyone who has anything to say to stand up and say something and act on it.”

Martin knows that she’s learned a lot and is excited about taking what she’s learned and applying it in her life.

“I’ve gained a lot of knowledge so far, and hopefully I’ll gain more about how I can make a difference, and how we can become involved with adults and leaders in our community to change what we need to change,” she said.

According to Olson, GLCYD hopes to have another summit when the survey is given again in 2008. Carlson agrees that having another summit would be a good idea.

“I think it would definitely help that this kind of event should occur again,” he explains. “Because people who are just coming into high school and other people who are becoming old enough to contribute to society will be able to look at what’s going on in the community and what they can do to help.”