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300 words
Helping the youth in our community to become successful can be as easy as learning their names and saying "hello" when we see them in the neighborhood. This is the premise of the "asset-building approach," which is a positive effort aimed at providing children with the support, positive experiences, opportunities, and values that will help them to become responsible, competent, and caring adults.
And every adult in the community has a role to play in helping to develop assets in youth.
Assets for Colorado Youth is an initiative funded by The Colorado Trust and Search Institute-Colorado. Research by Search Institute has identified 40 positive developmental factors (assets) that children need to succeed.
Family communication, a caring school environment and spending time in organized sports or clubs are just some of the assets that adults can provide to youth. The more assets a child has, the more likely he or she is to do well in school, value diversity, and engage in volunteer work-and the less likely he or she is to be involved in such risky behaviors as violence, drug abuse, and school dropout.
The assets initiative gives every person in the community an opportunity to help
youth become more healthy, happy and productive.
The assets initiative is designed to help adults move away from a generalized fear of adolescents to seeing them as resources and contributors-assets in themselves.
For a list of the 40 assets, or information on how to become involved with youth, contact your local Colorado State University Extension office.
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