Asset of the Week Intro
By Scott Atnip, Huntsville’s Promise Executive Director
I am writing this introductory column for what will be an initiative over the next several months to challenge each of us to consider ways that we can build a better community for Huntsville children and youth. Huntsville’s Promise, in partnership with The Huntsville Item will be coordinating forty developmental asset columns, each focusing on one of the forty developmental assets. Each column will be written by a different community leader, ranging from elected officials, to educators, to leaders in local churches and leaders of other non-profit organizations. They will be giving you insight on their thoughts relating to a developmental asset and maybe a few suggestions on how you can help strengthen that asset for students in our community. The paragraphs that follow will briefly give you an overview of the developmental assets and why they are important.
It is often said that our children are our future. I hope I am correct when I assume that every one of us wants to build a brighter future by providing the best opportunities for our students to learn and grow and succeed. Unfortunately, this is a challenging time for students, and Huntsville students face many severe challenges to success on a daily basis.
According to the 2001 Search Institute Survey of 7-12th grade students in HISD, about a third of students report being physically harmed in their own home. More than 40% report abusing alcohol, and almost half report being sexually active. More than half of Huntsville ISD students are classified as economically disadvantaged.
Fortunately, there are steps that every one of us can take to better support our students. In 2000, a group of leaders from across the community began to address the challenges facing Huntsville students by studying what other communities nationally were doing to address the needs of students. After comparing several models, this group of community leaders decided upon the America’s Promise model, created by then-General Colin Powell that calls on communities to work to fulfill 5 “Promises” to all children and youth. This approach can be measured scientifically through another model developed by the Search Institute which identified forty “Developmental Assets”, or building blocks, that students need to succeed.
These developmental assets are scientifically based, yet common sense indicators of what students need in order to be successful. They include external indicators such as adults who know and care about the students in their neighborhoods or spending three or more hours a week participating in a creative activity, and internal indicators, such as the student believing that responsibility is important and that being honest, even when it’s not easy, is the right thing to do.
Nationally, the developmental assets have revolutionized the way adults, communities and schools have thought about students. This model provides a mechanism for communities to work on addressing the needs of a student before they are having problems. Too often in our society we react to problems rather than preventing them; however, that is too great of a risk to take with our children. The asset-based approach allows us to be more intentional about our efforts to encourage positive behaviors and prevent the negative.
Research on the developmental assets clearly indicates that the more assets students possess, the more likely they are to exhibit positive behaviors. For example, students with higher levels of developmental assets receive higher grades, maintain better health and are more likely to value diversity. Students with higher levels of developmental assets are also more likely to avoid negative behaviors such as alcohol abuse, drugs use, sexual activity, or violent behaviors.
It is important for us as a community to be aware of these developmental assets so that we can better serve our young people. It is also important, as research indicates, because increased levels of community awareness of the assets alone can help increase levels of the developmental assets in students. For this reason, we are trying to raise awareness through these weekly columns.
This approach can help us build a community for our young people where all students are encouraged to succeed. As adults, we play an important role in this process. Our role can be as big as financially supporting one of the important non-profit organizations in town, or serving as a mentor, or as simple as intentionally learning the names of the kids in our neighborhoods and churches and taking an active interest in their lives. Every additional step we take to serve our students will help a student today, and help set a positive course for our future generations.
We hope that you will use this information to begin thinking about how you can better serve Huntsville students. If you have any questions, suggestions, or need addition information on the developmental assets, or to schedule a developmental asset training for your organization, church or business, please contact Scott Atnip at Huntsville’s Promise at 291-5950.