Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 6 : Fall 2010 | Page 50

The 40 Assets
by Allison Heidorn

The question of why some kids have a fairly easy time
growing up, while others struggle, why some get involved
in dangerous activities, while others lead productive lives
are usually answered by focusing on problems such as poor
choices due to socioeconomic status, lack of supportive
families, or being surrounded by bad influences. What if
we changed our lens and looked for other answers –answers
that would tell us how kids prevail, not fail. Search
Institute in Minneapolis did just that when developing
what are now called the “40 Developmental Assets”. Their
approach to answering these questions became upbeat,
optimistic, hopeful, and they highlighted what was right
with youth. What they found as a result of over
40 years of research and surveys of hundreds of
thousands of young people was that Developmental
Assets protect and empower youth. What are
Developmental Assets? They are the opportunities,
skills, relationships, values, and self-perceptions that
all young people need in their lives.

The 40 Developmental Assets fall into
eight broad categories of human development
including; Support, Empowerment, Boundaries
and Expectations, Constructive Use of Time,
Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social
Competencies, Positive Values and Positive Identity.
When young people are surrounded by these assets
in their lives they thrive.

As shown by the bar graph, youth with 3140 of the Developmental Assets have much lower
incidences of alcohol use, illicit drug use, sexual
activity and violence. The bottom line is that the
more assets a young person has, the better!

In an effort to create healthy communities
for young people to grow up, Aroostook Substance
Abuse Prevention (ASAP), a countywide substance
abuse prevention coalition, recognized the
importance of incorporating the 40 Developmental
Assets into their work. After becoming a certified
Developmental Asset trainer by the Search Institute in July
2008, Allison Heidorn (Developmental Asset Coordinator,
ASAP) began spreading the asset message to a variety of
communities throughout Aroostook County. As the
demand for information increased, it became apparent
that communities were looking for positive ways to build
healthy places for youth to call home.

In July 2010, Allison began work on a community
Developmental Asset Model in Caribou. The purpose of
the model is to create an asset rich environment in Caribou
but to also use this model as a guide for other communities.
Having done a significant amount of asset work in the
past two years, ASAP coalition recently joined nearly 600
communities and multiple organizations throughout the
world as a member of the Healthy Communities ∙ Healthy
Youth initiative. This national movement provides the
vision, structure, resources, and training to educate people
in all corners of the community about what they can do to

make sure young people get what they require to grow up
to be healthy, happy, caring adults. We have all heard that
it takes the collective efforts of an entire community to help
young people succeed in life, but in many cases, various
community sectors are not equipped to work toward a
common goal or do their part. Caribou’s Community Asset
Model will define a common goal, and provide direction
on how to build assets in all aspects of a community.

Although it would be naïve and self-defeating to
think that it is possible to create a “perfect world” for our
youth, Asset building does give us hope. Hope that we
can make a difference in the lives of young people. One

of these days, those same youth in our homes, schools,
neighborhoods, and workplaces will be the people in charge
– in charge of their own lives and in charge of the world.
What an incredible gift we can give them by facilitating and
helping to nurture the opportunities, skills, relationships,
values, and self-perceptions that all young people deserve.
It is that foundation of strength that will help them navigate
and thrive in a world that certainly is not perfect.

Want to know more about the 40 Developmental
Assets and ideas for helping young people build them? Visit
www.search-institute.org/assets.
This article wa