What are Developmental Assets?
The 40
assets are "positive experiences and qualities essential to
raising successful young people. These assets have the power
during critical adolescent years to influence choices young
people make and help them become caring, responsible adults" (www.search-institute.org).
In effect, they are a way for us to measure how likely our
children are to succeed in life and avoid dangerous behaviors.
For a
list of all 40 developmental assets please click on your
preferred age range:
Teens
Youth
Child
The
list of assets is valuable for several reasons
1. It
was not arbitrarily derived based on opinion. Rather, it was
abstracted from scientific research conducted over decades about
what yields healthy, pro-social children. One could come up with
a list hundreds of items long, but these are the ones that made
it past the harsh scrutiny of thousands of individuals and
rigorous scientific testing.
2. The
list is "strength based." In other words, it is not a list of
things to avoid like drugs, sex, and poor grades. When people
focus on problems like that, they tend to put a band aide on the
real underlying issue - kids need things in their environment
and within themselves to avoid those specific problems, other
problems, and move toward many positive things.
3. When
people focus on problems, it is usually left to counselors,
social services, and intervention programs to help children.
When people focus on positive elements in children's lives,
EVERYONE becomes part of the solution.
4. The
asset model gives everyone a common language to use when
discussing what children need, and how they can go about helping
to insure that children have as many assets as possible. From
the list, healthy communities and healthy children is given
focus, and from that focus can arise action. From that action,
children can grow up healthy is all aspects of the word.
How many
assets do children usually have?
Children with 31 - 40 assets tend to do much better in life
socially, emotionally, and academically. They are also far less
likely to use drugs or be violent. But, more than 90% of
children don't have that many positive things happening in their
lives. In fact, surveys of over a half million children indicate
that:
-
20% of children have between 0 & 10 assets
-
42% of children have between 11 & 20 assets
-
30% of children have between 21 & 30 assets
-
8% of children have between 31 & 40 assets
How does Camp
Hazen YMCA help develop these assets?
Camp Hazen YMCA can help you and your family nurture strong,
successful, responsible and caring children. Camp Hazen YMCA can
help target more than 25 of these developmental assets.
For a list of all 40 developmental assets please click on your
preferred age range:
Teens
Youth
Child
External
Assets
Support
Empowerment
-
(7) Camp Hazen YMCA values youth - we work on
their development and potential
-
(8) Campers are given useful tasks, such as
waiters, shared responsibilities, such as cabin clean up,
and our camper counsel
-
(9) Service to others, such as camp wide
community service projects
-
(10) We create physical and emotional safety
through a myriad of systems
Boundaries and
Expectations
-
(12) Hazen has clear expectations for
appropriate behavior, and they are enforced
-
(14) Staff are very carefully selected for
their ability to be positive and fun role models
-
(15) Counselor and village directors work
very hard to create a positive cabin atmosphere
-
(16) Our "Challenge by Choice" program
encourages children to be more involved in un
Constructive Use of
Time
-
(17) Camp Hazen has an enormous amount of
opportunities for children to both be creative and
experience creativity
-
(18) Children spend all day actively engaged,
and they often take a newfound skill and hobby home with
them
Internal Assets
Commitment to Learning
-
(21) By building general self-confidence,
children can see that they can achieve more
Positive Values
-
(26) Caring is modeled by staff, and fostered
through our programs and cabin chat discussions
-
(28) Integrity is modeled by staff, and
fostered in children
-
(29) Honesty is modeled by staff, and
fostered in children
-
(30) Responsibility is modeled by staff, and
fostered in children
Social Competencies
-
(32) Planning and decision making skills are
fostered through the camper choosing skill classes, the
group process of deciding cabin activities, overnights,
meals, and more.
-
(33) Interpersonal competence is modeled by
staff, and fostered in children
-
(34) Culture competence is fostered through
40% of the staff coming from other countries. We sometimes
host special meals and activities in a cultural tradition as
well.
-
(36) Peaceful conflict resolution is fostered
through our staff
Positive Identity
-
(37) Personal power is fostered through
choice over skill class and cabin activities (group process)
-
(40) Positive view of personal future is
fostered through general self-confidence increase via such
means as being away from home for a long time, achievement
in our skill classes, and camping out of doors
