Provides you with practical strategies for mobilizing communities around the needs of children. This book introduces and applies 40 "developmental assets" building blocks of healthy development that are essential for all youth, regardless of background, and enhance their chances for becoming competent adults.

This work provides you with practical strategies for mobilizing communities around the needs of children. This tenth anniversary revision of the Search Institute's groundbreaking book challenges all segments of the community families, neighbors, schools, congregations, youth organizations, local governments, employers, and residents to share in their responsibility for raising healthy, successful, and caring children and adolescents. Peter Benson introduces and applies 40 "developmental assets" building blocks of healthy development that are essential for all youth, regardless of background, and enhance their chances for becoming competent adults. Peter L. Benson (Minneapolis, MN) is President of the Search Institute, an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities.

List of Figures and Tables.Preface.ONE: Looking Through a New Lens.PART ONE: BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN ALL KIDS.TWO: Naming the Positive: The Concept of Developmental Assets.THREE: Developmental Assets: The More, the Better-for All Kids.FOUR: Directing Energy to Asset Building: Critical Culture Shifts.PART TWO: WHAT WE ALL CAN DO.FIVE: Creating Asset-Building Communities: Principles, Strategies, and Impact.SIX: Energizing, Supporting, and Sustaining Community Change.SEVEN: Mobilize Young People: Tapping Their Power to Build Assets Themselves.EIGHT: Engage Adults: Unleashing the Power of Intergenerational Relationships.NINE: Activate Sectors: Integrating Asset Building into Community Institutions.TEN: Invigorate Programs: Creating Asset-Rich Experiences for Young People.ELEVEN: Influence Civic Decisions: Seeking Common Ground on Behalf of All Kids.POSTSCRIPT: Choosing a New Path.APPENDICES.A. Selected Scientific References for Search Institute's Framework of Forty Developmental Assets.B. Not Just for Teenagers: Developmental Assets from Birth to Age Eighteen, and Beyond C Selected Resources.Notes.Acknowledgments.About the Author.Index.