How do we help our kids? The Search Institute's Developmental Assets

[pegkerr]

At my church's educational hour for adults today, we had someone from the Search Institute come to speak to us about the work that they do. Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. The heart of their mission is

Comments

[madlori]

I just recently had a really great opportunity to mentor land in my lap. I don't know if you saw my post about my alumnae-listserv friend who sent me her daughter's short story, but it really affected me.

I wrote an eleven page analysis of the girl's story, helping her see where she'd done particularly well and where she'd made errors, because her mom told me there's little support for her writing development in her school. It was a real pleasure to do it.

Today I got a letter from the daughter. She was very excited to write more, and hoped she could send her new work to me, too.

Since I don't know many kids in my daily life (okay, any), this was a precious chance that I'm grateful for.

[pegkerr]

Yes, I did see that post, and yes, that is terrific. I hope you get a great mentoring relationship out of it.

[erzebet]

I made a post about this once, but since I never give my entries subjects, I'll never find it now. So, in a nutshell, I am an artist and bookbinder with a working in-house studio and my doors are open to any and every kid in the local community. I've become known as Auntie Beth, and aside from all the times that the kids run to me when they've got trouble with the law (which happens quite often here) and I protect them both from an overzealous law and neglectful parents, I also invite them to use anything non-hazardous in my studio. I've stayed up late nights with some of them, talking about paints and perspective and possibilities (that last being the most important, as far as I'm concerned, in this area of the world). I never meant to become a role model or mentor of any sort, I just like kids and I don't like to see them the way I see them here, with services involved at every step, with no food in their houses, with parents who are too preoccupied with their addictions to really pay attention to what their kids are doing. I don't

[heidi8]

It's an interesting list. I understand their focus on neighbors, as there are many places where that makes a big impact, but in other circulstances, it's less integral. I also feel like a bit more focus on afterschool things would have been useful but that's just from my perspective.

[pegkerr]

They do have mention assets such as community involvement, sports, art projects, service projects, and a good relationship with several adults who are not the parent; I think that any of these could be afterschool things.

[callunav]

Lists like this make me a little bitter. I've spent so long working with kids who would be hard put to find five things on those to tick off, and so many of them are things outsidemy control, or the kid's parent's control, or the kid's control, that it feels like someone telling me earnestly that every adult in the country ought to receive a living wage and affordable healthcare. It's a situation where 'ought' doesn't really seem to help

[pegkerr]

Lists like this make me a little bitter. I've spent so long working with kids who would be hard put to find five things on those to tick off, and so many of them are things outsidemy control, or the kid's parent's control, or the kid's control, that it feels like someone telling me earnestly that every adult in the country ought to receive a living wage and affordable healthcare. It's a situation where 'ought' doesn't really seem to help.

St. Louis Park, the community where the Search Institute is based, is looking at what they can do as a community to implement the assets, to find different ways to get everybody involved. Here's the page at the St. Louis Park public schools, and here's the organization called Children First, which is the community's response to the 40 assets. The result is that St. Louis Park has been identified as one of the 100 best places for young people to live.

[pegkerr]

I was actually thinking about your experience when I posted the question.