Helping Kids Succeed – Alaskan Style!

Practical Suggestions for Building Assets in Your Child

Asset # 7- Community Values Youth

Traditional Ways to Promote Asset #7 Give praise to any child or youth whenever you see them doing good. If a boy chops wood for an Elder, compliment him and tell him he is valuable. — Toksook Bay Tell your children where their grandparents and great-grandparents come from. Help them see the connection to their place and to their family. — Chuathbaluk Celebrate each youth's first successful hunt. — Noorvik Teach children traditional songs. — Lower Kalskag During the whaling festival, people gathered for the blanket toss. Many hands held the skin cover of an umiat (boat). Children, teenagers, and some adults would jump high in the air as people cheered and shouted. — Barrow Show you appreciate kids. In Toksook Bay, the community had the children stand in the center of the gym and all the adults formed a circle around them on the outside and sang the song, "We are the World." This was magical and loving. — Toksook Bay

To Build Asset #7 Parents and Extended Family Can . . . 1. Attend school and community functions, sports activities, concerts, etc. in which your kids are involved. — Juneau 2. Encourage your kids to participate in conferences concerning issues that affect them. Help them to give testimony. Help them write letters to the newspaper about issues affecting young people. — Metlakatla 3. Lead a youth program or group that gets involved in issues of the day. — North Pole 4. Support community efforts that address the needs of youth. Example: building a skateboard park. — Wasilla 5. Hire neighborhood kids to do chores such as gardening, lawn work, shoveling snow, or painting. Do projects with the kids to get to know them better. — Anchorage 6. Encourage your newspaper, radio, or TV station to recognize youth for the contributions they make to the community. Go beyond sports and academic excellence. — Fairbanks 7. Encourage the AC (Alaska Commercial) or other local businesses to give discounts or certificates to young people who have shown some exceptional achievement. — Bethel 8. Attend village, city, or borough council meetings to make sure the needs and opinions of young people are heard. Invite young people to go with you. Keep youth issues in the spotlight with decision-makers. — Kenai 9. Write thank-you notes to youth groups who have made some contribution. — Palmer 10. Nominate a worthy youth group you know for the "Spirit of Youth" award each year. — Anchorage

Asset #7 — Community Values Youth

20% of youth surveyed by Search Institute have this asset in their lives.*

*Based on Search Institute surveys of almost 100,000 6th to 12th grade youth throughout the United States

What are Assets?

Assets are 40 key building blocks to help kids succeed. Like a dream catcher, assets are the supporting threads in a young person's life that can keep away harm and invite goodness.