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Developmental Asset Framework

The  Alliance for Children and Youth of Waterloo Region, a coalition of organizations and individuals acting together to promote the well-being of children, youth and their families, has embraced The Developmental Assets as  an excellent model of a strength-based approach to build healthy children and young people.

The Foundation is pleased to join the community in supporting this strength-based approach as one strategy to building healthy children.

The Developmental Asset Framework was created by the Search Institute, a non- profit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities. Developmental Assets are opportunities, skills, relationships, values and self-perceptions that all children and young people need to grow up into healthy, caring, and responsible people.

The greater the number of Assets, the greater the likelihood children and young people will be successful in school and grow up to be contributors to their community.

Developmental Assets are concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful children and young people. These assets have the power to help children and young people them become caring, responsible adults.

The Developmental Assets are divided into two types- External and Internal.

External Assets
The external assets focus on positive experiences that children and young people receive from the people and institutions in their lives. They are focused on relationships and opportunities children and young people experience in their families, schools, neighbourhoods and community. Four categories of external assets are:

• Support—children and young people need to experience support, care, and love from their families, neighbours, and many others. They need organizations and institutions that provide positive, supportive environments.

• Empowerment—children and young people need to be valued by their community and have opportunities to contribute to others. For this to occur, they must be safe and feel secure.

• Boundaries and expectations—children and young people need to know what is expected of them and whether activities and behaviors are "in bounds" and "out of bounds."

• Constructive use of time—children and young people need constructive, enriching opportunities for growth through creative activities, youth programs, congregational involvement, and quality time at home.

Internal Assets
Internal Assets are competencies and values that children and young people develop internally to guide their behaviours and choices. Four categories of internal assets include:

• Commitment to learning—children and young people need to develop a lifelong commitment to education and learning.

• Positive values—children and youth need to develop strong values that guide their choices.

• Social competencies—children and young people need skills and competencies that equip them to make positive choices, to build relationships, and to succeed in life.

• Positive identity—children and young people need a strong sense of their own power, purpose, worth, and promise.

 

The following five lists of age-specific assets offer a vision for a foundation of developmental assets for children and youth through the first two decades of life.

Here are the lists for each age group:

• 40 Developmental Assets for Infants
    English (PDF)    Spanish (PDF)    French (PDF)

• 40 Developmental Assets for Toddlers
    English (PDF)    Spanish (PDF)    French (PDF)

• 40 Developmental Assets for Preschoolers
    English (PDF)   Spanish (PDF)    French (PDF)

• 40 Developmental Assets for Elementary-Age Children
     English (PDF)   Spanish (PDF)   French (PDF)

• 40 Developmental Assets for Teenagers (the primary framework)
    English (PDF)   Spanish (PDF)   French (PDF)

 

For more information on the Developmental Assets please check the Search Institute at www.search-institute.org. 

THRIVE, the Canadian Centre for Positive Youth Development, located in Waterloo is the Canadian partner of the Search Institute, also offers resources and training on the Developmental Assets. Visit THRIVE at http://www.thrivecanada.ca/

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