OBJECTIVES:

Introduce positive, asset-based approach to youth development

Introduce trauma-informed understanding of our society and the systems that produce trauma

Discuss and apply to your work

INTRO: Name. Why you're here. What you're excited about. What you're nervous about.

Existing conventional wisdom is (1) we want to prevent people from engaging in destructive lifestyles - delinquency, violence, substance abuse, school failure, early pregnancy, and (2) we want young people to achieve - graduate high school and go to college

What are some potential problems with this conventional mindset?

Checklists are useful for:
• making decisions whether to refer onto other services
• comparisons and measurement
• understanding the characteristics of a group
• grouping people or things by their characteristics
• helping to generalize about a group
• capturing a set of tasks or a process that needs to be
completed that need to be completed with accuracy

NOT useful for:
• capturing specific details that describe a person
• understanding an individual’s experiences and views
• capturing information that is unexpected or doesn’t fit
• capturing what else people can do (often checklists focus on what people cannot do)
• capturing what people love

No one is inspired by the message: "you need to be fixed and we are here to fix you."

Yes, better preparation and prevention IS critical. There is nothing wrong with what's in the checklist mentality. It's what's missing that points us towards new opportunities for growth. Young people need to be fully engaged in their own future.

But a checklist mentality can breed thinking like:
I am smart v I am not smart
I don't like this
I am not good learning
I hate school
In other words, the world becomes black and white, and you either got it our you don't. A FIXED MINDSET

A person with a GROWTH MINDSET says things like:
I don't understand this (yet). Can you help me?
I like learning new things
This is hard but I am trying
I used to stink at that, but now I am much better
In other words a fundamental belief in the ability to become better at something. A world of COLOR

I'd like to hear from the group about some amazing young people in your life

the cup isn't half full or half empty. it is filled to the brim. it is pouring over.

a strengths-based approach to working with young people means your care and understanding are not contingent on 'good' behavior.

I know that, right now, when some of you hear me say that, warning bells are going off. what is an apparent risk of being caring no matter what?

I am not saying don't be firm. I am saying separate the person from the act. There are no bad people (except maybe sociopaths). Only people who do bad things.

This also works in the affirmative. Honor the act. Not the person. Help young people separate what they do from the deeper sense of self, of who they are. So that even when things go wrong, they don't give up. So that they recognize strengths where once they saw weakness

How might this come up in the context of college?

Examples of Negative Labels
Obnoxious
Rude, arrogant
Resistant
Lazy, un-invested
Manipulative
Attention Seeking
Different, odd
Stubborn, defiant

Flipping the Lables
Good at pushing people away
Good at affecting people
Cautious
Good at preventing furthur hurts, failures
Good at getting needs met
Good at caring about and loving yourself
Under-appreciated
Good at standing up for yourself

They recognize their strengths, because when you recognize their strengths (and your own strengths), you invite them to recognize their strengths as well.

If we stop with preparation and prevention, this is, at best, what we are left with. A competent young person? Is that a bad outcome? No. But is it the bets one? And is it even guaranteed if this is all we do? What are the limits of competence as an end goal?

I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.

- Maya Angelou

There are persistent opportunity and achievement gaps between white children and underrepresented children, AND across upper, middle, and low socioeconomic boundaries. We are asking everyone to run the same race, but we are not giving everyone the same access to training, coaching, support, and opportunity.

This is an extraordinarily deep well, and we can't draw from it in depth today, but I want to underline this historical reality. We live in a world that has been intimately shaped by legal, political, and systemic actions and decisions stretching back centuries. If we know where to look, we see and feel the results of these systems every day. Here's a great video that really nails the issue:

http://bit.ly/1idDcnO

Underneath all of this is love. Love for self. Love for others.

"The Triumph of Experience" - a loving childhood is one of the best predictors of mid and late-life riches


Remember:

Look for strengths where others see weakness
Reflects those strengths back to your students ("I see you")
Speak about a hopeful future
Find ways for kids to d

Questions? Reflections? Observations?

What role do you play in all of this? What are some other things that need to be addressed for all of this to work together and give every kid the opportunity she deserves?

*PRIMARY SOURCE *written by Pittman, Irby, Tolman, Yohalem, and Ferber. 2003. The Forum for Youth Investment

BEST - http://youthworkcentral.org/

NTCSN - http://www.nctsnet.org/

Youth Dev 101 - https://prezi.com/nhudfkgs-y8r/youth-development-101/?utm_campaign=share&ut...

**written by George Valiant based on decades of research on a cohort of hundreds of Harvard students