40 Assets

Hello Everyone,

These red bud trees are blooming here in Nashville.

Today we will explore the 40 assets philosophy of working with youth... I train youth workers on this and the Circle of Courage and Advancing Youth Development. That third one, I believe you will be trained in by John at some point.

The 40 assets is a very easy way to look at what youth need to become successful adults. It was developed by the Search Institute.

What is an asset?
Here is a definition: A useful or valuable quality, person, or thing; an advantage or resource:

So check out the link here to see the list of all 40 developmental assets.

You can see that they are divided into two categories: external and internal.

I have information that tells us what percentage of youth have each asset. (At least by their research)

Guess which three assets are the lowest? (In other words, which three assets do youth say are the lowest in their lives?)

Guess which three assets are the highest?

I will tell you tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I ask youth workers to think of a person, activity, group etc (Just like I did for Circle of Courage) and this time go through the list of the 40 assets and check the ones that they acquired because of that person or group, etc.

Try it if you want. It is really cool to see what assets you got from just one person or experience. It helps us to realize how we can develop these assets in the youth at our agencies.

Tomorrow I will go through the external assets as well as tell you what the highest and lowest are according to the youth surveyed.

(I did look at your photos and wish i could meet you all!)



LA