41 Development Assets and Upcoming Student Survey

Diane Downend, diane@edenbridgehomes.com


The Developmental Assets framework developed by the Search Institute has been adopted by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the City of Palo Alto and community agencies to provide a common vision and language for youth well-being. Developmental Assets are the experiences, values, relationships, opportunities and competencies that all youth need to thrive. Examples of the first forty of these assets as defined by the Search Institute can be found at http://www.search-institute.org/content/40-developmental-assets-adolescents-ages-12-18. Santa Clara County has added a 41st asset related to how comfortable our youth feel about their identities (ethnicity, faith/religion, family status, gender, language, sexual orientation). Research undertaken by the Search Institute has found that the Developmental Assets are powerful influences on adolescent behavior. Those whose lives are rich in developmental assets perform better in all aspects of life, feeling comfortable in their own skins, while those youth whose lives are deficient of development assets are far more prone to risky behaviors.

Palo Alto Unified School District will kick off the program in October by conducting a survey of Gunn and Paly students (survey will also be conducted with younger PAUSD students in grades 4, 5 and 7) to gain a sense of how our youth stack up in Developmental Assets. So that our students do not feel “over-surveyed” this year, PAUSD will not conduct the PARC that has been undertaken in recent years.

Where do parents fit in?

1. With respect to the survey itself all parents must provide positive consent for their students to participate in the survey. Look for the school to provide to you in the near future a consent form. Please sign and return the consent at your earliest convenience. The more students able to take the survey, the richer our data set will be.
2. Half of the Developmental Assets are externally founded and rely directly upon adults to be active asset builders in our youth. To grow your awareness of what this means and how you can help, a number of workshops are scheduled in coming weeks:

• September 22, 2010 from 7-9pm at 25 Churchill there will be a panel presentation by various community agencies to introduce the Developmental Assets to the community, to answer any questions about the student survey, and to help you become an asset builder for your students.
• An education program called Assets 101 that will go into more depth about the Development Assets and how we can help our children and teens acquire them will be offered on September 16th from 11am-2pm or October 9th from 9am to noon, both at the Lucie Stern Ballroom.
• A six week Developmental Asset training program will kick off at the YMCA Ross Road facility on October 20 from 7-9pm.