Helping Kids Succeed Alaskan Style!
Practical Suggestions for Building Assets in Your Child
Asset # 26- Caring
When youth take the initiative to intentionally help someone
they are showing that they care. Youth
can show they care by spending time with people needing help and by
collecting food, money or other items to give to people who distribute the
items to those in need. Caring about
others includes caring for a lot of different people: those in your school,
community, job, state, family, country, and world. To help youth value caring, parents and extended family can
show compassion and caring to all family members. When your child does something that
demonstrates caring, talk about the event so they can feel satisfaction
from that experience. Assist your
child in helping others by giving suggestions like helping an elderly or
disabled person. Take on family
projects that help others. Establish
the value of caring early on in a child's life by letting them know they
themselves are cared about. School staff can have students collect food items and put
together meals for needy families.
Use student's abilities and gifts to help other students. Students good at math can help those
struggling with the subject. Help
students reflect on their experiences.
Recognize caring students in a special way. Faith communities can encourage the study of references to
caring within your faith tradition.
Consider letting your youth group take on projects which will help
others and show that they care.
Provide opportunities for youth to provide service in meaningful
ways. Help students identify areas
of need and offer assistance. Any community member can let youth around you
help whenever they can. Thank them
and tell them they were a great help to you. Don't just do organized efforts of
helping, let youth see you doing "random acts of kindness." Get involved in community efforts to give
young people opportunities to serve others.
Most of us help others and promote a caring environment
without knowing it. Continue to
model caring behavior and show others you care by truly caring about them. Youth who place high value on freely helping others are more
likely to have more effective social skills, better mental health, lessened
risk behaviors, and greater academic achievement than those students who
don't. Integrity has also been
associated with: Better
reasoning skills (Darmondy,
1991) Higher conflict
resolution skills (Solomon,
Battistich, & Wilson, 1993) Greater
overall well-being (Moore
& Glei, 1995) Higher
self-esteem (Johnson,
1993; Solomon et al., 1993 Less intention to have sexual intercourse,
less actual sexual intercourse, and greater use of condoms and other
contraception (Donahue, 1987; Ford & Norris, 1993;
Gibson & Kempf, 1990; Kirby et al., 1994) Less
affiliation with deviant friends (Whitbeck,
Simons, Conger & Lorenz, 1989) Greater
competence (Call,
Mortimer, & Shanahan, 1995) Higher
grades and math and reading scores (Hanson & Ginsburg, 1988; Rosenthal
& Feldman, 1991; Wentzel, 1991) Quote: "Children are more likely to grow into caring people if
they know they themselves are cared about." Alfie Kohn Other stuff: A smile is a quick and easy way to show someone you care. According to the Search Institute researchers, girls are much
more likely than boys to value caring.
Of the girls surveyed, 82% said helping other people was important
to them, and 73% said it was important to help make the world a better
place. For boys, the percentages
were 60% and 57% respectively. This newsletter and
other asset resources are produced by the Association of
Alaska School Boards Alaska Initiative for Community Engagement
(Alaska ICE) 316 West 11th Street Juneau, Alaska 99801 Tel: (907) 586-1486 Fax: (907) 586-1450 Email: alaskaice@aasb.org
Words of Encouragement
Research