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An Evaluation of a Statewide Initiative

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Title: An Evaluation of a Statewide Initiative


1
An Evaluationof a Statewide Initiative
  • Assets for Colorado Youth

Conducted for The Colorado Trust by OMNI
Institute OMNI Research Training, Inc.
2
Sharing the Findings
  • Growing Momentum
  • Key Terms and Principles
  • Background on the Initiative and Evaluation
  • Major Findings
  • Setting a Future Research Agenda
  • Response and Discussion
  • ACY Executive Director, Maria Guajardo-Lucero,
    Ph.D.
  • Colorado Trust Senior Evaluation Officer, Nancy
    Csuti, Dr.Ph.

3
Growing Momentum
  • Search Institute introduced the Healthy
    Communities/ Healthy Youth Initiative in 1990
  • 560 asset-building initiatives in 24 states and
    Canada
  • (Search Institute, 2003)
  • Universities involved in asset-related research
  • Columbia, Michigan State, Washington, Kansas
  • Grant-makers funding research and initiatives
  • Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, United Way,
    William T. Grant, Packard Foundation

4
Background on the Initiative
  • Growing interest in the state
  • In 1997, The Colorado Trust partnered with Search
    Institute to establish the first statewide
    initiative to promote the asset framework
  • The Trust invested over 10 million, 1997-2002
  • 45 grantees throughout the state
  • community mobilization statewide partnerships
  • innovation communities of color
  • associational partnerships
  • In 2000, an independent organization, Assets for
    Colorado Youth, was established to provide
    statewide leadership and promote the
    sustainability of the growing movement

5
Assets for Colorado Youth Initiative
  • Awareness to Action
  • Celebration of Asset Champions
  • Sector Engagement
  • Innovation

6
Evaluating the Assets for Colorado Youth
Initiative
  • First comprehensive evaluation of a statewide
    asset-building initiative
  • Evaluation period
  • September 2000 - 2002
  • Strategies
  • Historical analysis of ACYs role as a catalyst
  • Case studies of asset-building organizations
  • Network survey, Exploratory study of asset
    champions
  • Focus group study of youth-level impacts

7
Learning Opportunities
  • Role of organizations in youth development
  • Asset building in diverse contexts
  • Regions of the state
  • Diverse sectors
  • Different types of organizations
  • Unfolding of a social movement
  • New framework, not a program
  • Innovation
  • Statewide organization with expertise in
    cultural competency

8
Key Terms
  • Assets
  • Asset Building
  • Asset-Building Organizations (ABOs)
  • Asset Champions
  • Asset Framework
  • Asset Innovations
  • Asset Integration
  • Positive Youth Development
  • Transformation
  • Youth Engagement

9
The Asset Framework
  • Based on Search Institutes 40 Developmental
    Assets
  • Building blocks that promote healthy youth
    development
  • Framework for community and youth development
    that focuses on enhancing strengths
  • Part of a larger field, positive youth
    development (PYD)

10
40 Developmental Assets
  • External Assets
  • Support
  • Empowerment
  • Boundaries and Expectations
  • Constructive Use of Time
  • Internal Assets
  • Commitment to Learning
  • Positive Values
  • Social Competency
  • Positive Identity

11
40 Developmental Assets
Family support Achievement motivation Positive
family communication School engagement Other
adult relationships Homework Caring
neighborhood Bonding to school Caring school
climate Reading for pleasure Parent involvement
in schooling Caring Community values youth
Equality and social justice Youth as resources
Integrity Service to others Honesty Safety
Responsibility Family boundaries
Restraint School boundaries Planning and
decision making Neighborhood boundaries
Interpersonal competence Adult role models
Cultural competence Positive peer influence
Resistance skills High expectations Peaceful
conflict resolution Creative activities
Personal power Youth programs
Self-esteem Religious community Sense of
purpose Time at home Positive view of personal
future
12
Principles of Asset Building
  • All children and youth need to develop assets
  • All communities have assets
  • Supports and opportunities that can promote
    health
  • All children and youth are valued as resources
  • Anyone can be an asset builder
  • Change comes from building on strengths

13
Principles of Asset Building
  • Deficit-Focus Asset Approach
  • Issue Social Problems Relationships/Developmenta
    l infrastructure
  • Focus High Risk Strengths
  • Behaviors
  • Target At-Risk Youth All Youth
  • Strategies More programs, Mobilization of
    citizens and
  • More professionals Realignment of social
    systems
  • Timeframe Period of funding Long term commitment
  • New issues
  • Affect Problem-focus Strength-focus
  • Frustration, Despair Optimism, Empowerment

14
Major Findings, Emerging Insights
  • Engagement with the Asset Framework
  • Dynamics -
  • Youth engagement Asset champions Cultural
    innovation Asset integration
  • Transformation
  • Youth Adults Organizations

15
Engagement and Transformation
  • Youth Engagement

16
Youth Engagement
  • Young people, not unlike adults, tend to be more
    engaged -- bring greater energy and enthusiasm to
    their roles within an organization or community
    -- when provided meaningful and authentic
    opportunities to contribute and serve as resources

17
Youth Engagement in the Context of Asset Building
  • Youth and adults share power
  • Youth have opportunities to assume high levels of
    responsibility
  • Youth act on opportunities and accept
    responsibility
  • Youth are viewed as stakeholders
  • Adults and youth work side-by side
  • Strong, enduring relationships exist
  • Asset Champions (both youth and adult) are
    present

18
Youth Engagement
  • Engaging youth as partners provided important
    opportunities to develop assets in young people
  • More Effective Relationships with Adults
  • Youth reported having a greater number of
    interactions with a wider circle of adults.
  • Youth and adults found that their interactions
    with one another were more positive.
  • Youth indicated that participation in
    asset-building projects had helped them
    strengthen their relationships with significant
    adults in their lives.

19
Youth Engagement
  • Engaging youth as partners provided important
    opportunities to develop assets in young people
  • Other Areas of Positive Change
  • A stronger sense of belonging
  • The development of new skills
  • Increased self-confidence
  • A more positive future-orientation
  • Empowerment and efficacy as change agents (asset
    builders)

20
Youth Engagement
  • In some very important ways, findings from the
    evaluation suggest that, youth engagement also
    promoted/enhanced
  • Organizational effectiveness
  • The engagement of adults as asset builders

21
Youth Engagement Promotes Organizational
Effectiveness
  • Programs that were informed by young people often
    were more effective at piquing the interest and
    maintaining the involvement of youth participants
  • Soliciting the input of young people in program
    planning and refinement often expedited the
    process of program development
  • Young people were often the best advocates for
    youth-focused programs and services and could
    generate public support more effectively than
    adults speaking on their behalf

22
Youth Engagement as a Factor Promoting Adult
Engagement
  • Bearing witness to youth thrive in leadership
    roles and capacities could sometimes lead adults
    to become engaged (or reinforced their
    engagement) as asset builders

23
Youth Engagement
  • By having youth more involved, then adults
    cant believe the opening, the creativity that
    occurs. It really broadens their respect for
    youth.

24
Engagement and Transformation
  • Asset Champions

25
Asset Champions Promoted Engagement
  • Asset champions were
  • Ambassadors of the asset framework
  • Advocates for youth
  • A hub between different organizations involved
    in asset-building projects
  • Messengers who spread the word to new community
    groups


26
Asset Champions Promoted Engagement
  • Helped individuals and diverse groups connect
    with assets by adapting the framework to
    peoples
  • unique circumstances
  • life experiences, and
  • social and cultural frames of reference
  • Presented assets in ways that made the framework
    relevant and meaningful to individuals daily
    lives


27
Connecting Assets to Peoples Lives
  • The message of assets has to align with what is
    going on right now in communities It cant just
    be a list It has to be adjusted, tailored, and
    presented in a way that is relevant for this
    time, for the community, for the people that its
    presented to.

28
Engagement and Transformation
  • Innovation

29
Innovation Promoted Engagement
  • Translation of assets into small, everyday acts
  • Promoted a sense of self-efficacy
  • Innovation, specifically cultural innovation
  • Cultural translation of the asset framework
    entailed
  • Translation of the words
  • Transformation of the framework based on the
    cultural milieu of diverse groups

30
Cultural Innovation and Engagement
  • It is extremely important to connect the asset
    philosophy to culture. Incorporating visuals,
    song, dance helps participants understand and
    remember the message helps people connect
    with assets in a way that is meaningful to their
    lives. Incorporating culture helps them
    translate the assets into their own way of
    thinking.

31
Empowerment as Transformation
  • The more that groups and communities participated
    in the cultural translation of the assets, the
    more that empowerment seemed to occur
  • Empowerment was one of the major, yet largely
    unanticipated, transformations that resulted from
    this kind of engagement with the framework
  • Minority populations
  • Economically impacted communities

32
Empowerment as Transformation
  • The asset framework focuses attention on
    strengths and possibilities/opportunities
  • For individuals and communities that have been
    described in terms of deficits (e.g. school
    drop-out, juvenile delinquent), asset building
    may be a particularly appropriate approach to
    engagement.

33
Engagement and Transformation
  • Asset Integration

34
Assets Integration in Organizations
35
Asset Integration Promoted Engagement
  • When the asset framework is infused at all levels
    within an organization
  • Program Development
  • Guides the development and management of all
    programs
  • Product Development
  • Is incorporated into the literature and resources
    developed or disseminated


36
Asset Integration Promoted Engagement
  • When the asset framework is infused at all levels
    within an organization
  • Staff Development
  • Serves as a basis for staff trainings, evaluation
    and new staff orientations
  • Fund Development
  • Is used to support grant writing
  • Policy Development
  • Informs the development of policies and
    procedures


37
Asset Integration Promoted Engagement
  • In our department, every single thing that
    crosses my desk, all the programs that are here,
    Ill ask, How are we addressing the assets
    framework in what were doing?

38
Implications of Assets Integration at Multiple
Levels within an Organization
  • Institutionalization
  • Enhanced organizational effectiveness
  • Engagement of diverse stakeholders and different
    audiences


39
Institutionalization of the Assets Approach
  • Whoever steps into the position, the way that
    you run the program, the approach, its already
    there. Its not something that somebody would
    come in and have to develop Its part of
    everyday activities The neighborhood is aware
    of it. They have an expectation. So does the
    school The organization has an expectation
    about the importance of youth development and how
    thats achieved. So, I think its just part of
    the whole foundation.

40
Institutionalization of Assets
  • When assets influences the products and work
    being conducted at multiple levels, the assets
    philosophy permeates the organization
  • Institutionalization of assets is more likely to
    occur, as a result
  • Such institutionalization may enhance the
    sustainability of asset building
  • Serves to buffer staff turn-over
  • Makes assets less vulnerable to categorical
    funding


41
Ways that Assets Promotes Organizational
Effectiveness
  • Clarifies the organizational mission
  • Provided a language and structure that made the
    organizational philosophy explicit and conscious
  • Helps align staff efforts with broader
    organizational goals
  • Helped staff understand that they had a role in
    building assets among youth, regardless of their
    role or position
  • Streamlined efforts all staff were working
    toward the same goal
  • Promotes intentionality
  • Guided the strategic selection and development of
    programs
  • Increased staff awareness of teachable moments


42
Intentionality
  • Deliberately, purposefully, and consciously
    working to build assets and actively working to
    structure activities and interactions in ways
    that foster the development of assets.

43
Teachable Moments
  • Moments or opportunities that are recognized or
    intentionally created for teaching or
    articulating a life lesson that has broader
    significance and impact than the situation at
    hand may suggest

44
Contributions of the Research
  • Helps researchers and practitioners better
    understand the asset-building process and the
    factors contributing to the growing movement
  • Introduces the concept of asset-building
    organizations and examines their contribution to
    youth development
  • Distinguishes between youth engagement and youth
    involvement
  • Examines youth-level impacts

45
Future Research Directions
  • Measuring Youth Outcomes
  • Youth are not only impacted, they are also
    serving as the agents or catalysts of change
  • When assessing youth outcomes, what are the most
    salient measures?
  • What are the most valid approaches or methods for
    assessing meaningful outcomes for youth?
  • How can youth be engaged in the process of
    determining and measuring outcomes?

46
Future Research Directions
  • The Cross-Cultural Validity of Assets
  • Spanish language communities used dichos to
    convey the salient cultural meanings of assets
  • Native American groups reorganized the framework
    to instill in youth core traditional cultural
    values such as interconnectedness and social
    responsibility
  • What core aspects of the asset framework resonate
    cross-culturally in terms raising and nurturing
    children?

47
Future Research Directions
  • Asset Engagement
  • Assets integration and engagement demonstrated
    the potential to empower marginalized
    cultural/ethnic groups, economically impacted
    communities
  • How are communities re-aligned as a result of
    assets integration?
  • How are resources/assets activated and utilized
    differently as a result of asset integration?
  • What are the implications, not only in terms of
    youth development, but also in terms of social
    and community-level variables, such as those
    related to health?

48
Future Research Directions
  • Linkages between the Fields of Youth,
    Organizational and Community Development
  • Findings suggest that youth development and
    organizational development are linked in
    important ways
  • What are these linkages?
  • What are their theoretical relationships?
  • What are the implications for shaping community
    and youth development practice?

49
Reactions
  • ACY
  • What are some of the implications of the
    evaluation for ACY?
  • More generally, what are the implications for the
    field of positive youth development?
  • Trust
  • What are some of the implications of the
    evaluation for The Trust?
  • More generally, how are these findings relevant
    to the work of foundations and other grant-makers?

50
Reactions
  • What are some of the factors that are
    contributing to the increased interest in the
    asset framework and strength-based approaches?
  • What new insights about asset building have
    emerged for you?
  • What are the implications of the evaluation for
    researchers and evaluators?
  • What needed research directions do you perceive
    in the field?
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