AZ Health Connections

Active engagement in learning is one of the 40 developmental assets

The AstraZeneca Young Health Program, IM40, is designed to give adolescents the tools they need to be healthier and to live up to their potential in school and in life.

At the heart of this program is a set of 40 developmental assets – or building blocks – of healthy development. The non-profit Search Institute identified these assets based on its 50+ years of experience helping motivate and equip young people and the caring adults around them on ways to be more successful.

What is a developmental asset?

Search Institute’s Gene Roehlkepartain characterizes them as “common sense” positive experi­ences and characteristics that young people need and deserve. Created in the 1990s, the framework is grounded in research on child and adolescent development, risk prevention, and resiliency. The 40 developmental assets are comprised of 20 external and 20 internal assets. 

External assets are related to the environment, resources and support system around the youth.  They are organized into four categories: support, empowerment, boundaries & expectations and constructive use of time. Some of these are: 

• Caring neighborhood:  Young person experiences caring neighbors
• Service to others: Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week
• Family boundaries: Family has clear rules and consequences, and monitors the young person’s whereabouts
• Youth programs: Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in community organizations

Internal assets are those personal values, competencies and experiences that come from within. They are organized into four categories: commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies and positive identity. Some of these are: 

• Reading for pleasure: Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week
• Honesty: Young person “tells the truth even when it is not easy”
• Planning and decision making: Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices
• Personal power: Young person feels he or she has control over “things that happen to me”

For a full list of assets, visit www.IM40.org. 

Do they work? 

Michael Graves, the executive director of the YMCA of Delaware, has been using the Search Institute model for more than 15 years with much success. The assets are a core part of programs his team leads, such as the YMCA’s Black Achievers Program, that provide youth with positive adult role models and help make them effective decision makers. Graves says that youth don’t need every single one of the assets, “they just need a bunch of them and, as community leaders, we need to be looking at this list of 40 items and making sure the services and programs we’re providing deliver on those assets.”

Surveys of almost 150,000 students in grades 6–12 conducted by Search Institute show a striking link between the assets and adolescent behavior. For example, 29 percent of students surveyed with up to ten assets reported taking good care of their bodies by eating healthy foods and exercising regularly, as compared to 91 percent of students surveyed with thirty to forty assets.

What’s your number?

Thinking back to your middle school days, how many assets would you have? Take the asset quiz at http://im40.org/quiz.html. It’s a great way to start the conversation about ways we as individuals and as a community can be assets for our youth.

The News Journal calls the Young Health Program "a model for young people to grow with."

This morning, our hometown newspaper lays out the challenges that are at the very heart of a new initiative – the Young Health Program: IM40 – we launched last week with the United Way of Delaware.

From an editorial in the News Journal:

As difficult as it is to admit, many who truly care about the welfare of teenagers — especially those “at-risk” for perilous futures — don’t have a clue about what to do.

What they lack in knowledge and skills can’t be compensated for with just good intentions or will.

That becomes more troublesome when they are positioned either as youth program directors or mentors, able to wield life-changing influence on developing minds.

However, a global initiative steeped in the science of healthy adolescent development has arrived in Delaware with the necessary rubrics for ensuring that those who mean to do right by young people have the tools to realize their intentions.

Last week, AstraZeneca and United Way of Delaware kicked off a five-year initiative to help youth ages 12-15 build up the inventory of personal and community assets they need to be healthier and more successful in school.

This is part of AstraZeneca’s global commitment to helping young people in need around the world improve their health. We join AstraZeneca young health initiatives in Korea, Zambia, Canada, India and other countries in working with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to track and measure the outcomes of our strategies to make a meaningful difference in youth health.

The Young Health Program: IM40 aims to support children ages 12-15.

The News Journal of Delaware published a joint OpEd by Marion McCourt, chief operating officer of AstraZeneca US, and Michelle Taylor, president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Delaware.

McCourt and Taylor present our partnership on a new program to support youth and communities in our home state:

The Young Health Program will promote a set of 40 positive developmental assets in adolescents. The developmental assets are personal and community traits that are proven to help protect a young person from health risks and to help promote healthy choices. By working together as a community to promote these developmental assets, we believe we can build a better future and support a healthier generation.

Rooted in the 40 developmental asset approach pioneered by the renowned Search Institute and endorsed by Johns Hopkins University, the Young Health Program: IM40 will seek to increase the inventory of an adolescent’s assets — common sense, positive experiences and qualities that relate to such things as support, boundaries, values and commitment to learning.

Data from Search Institute shows that the assets not only promote positive health and wellbeing, they also help protect young people from high-risk behaviors such as violence, substance abuse and sexual activity. The more assets a young person has, the less likely he or she is to make unhealthy choices today and in the future.

The News Journal also ran this story Saturday on the launch of the program. Give it a click; there are good photos and video at the link.

As we noted Friday, the “Young Health Program IM40″ aims to help youth ages 12-15 build up the inventory of personal and community assets they need to be healthier and more successful in school.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a closer look at those 40 developmental assets.

AstraZeneca US COO Marion McCourt and Delaware children help launch the Young Health Program.

AstraZeneca and United Way of Delaware kicked off a five-year initiative today to help youth ages 12-15 build up the inventory of personal and community assets they need to be healthier and more successful in school.

This is part of AstraZeneca’s global commitment to helping young people in need around the world improve their health. We join AstraZeneca young health initiatives in Korea, Zambia, Canada, India and other countries in working with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to track and measure the outcomes of our strategies to make a meaningful difference in youth health.

Young Health Program: IM⁴⁰ takes a nontraditional approach to youth health. Rather than trying to tackle specific health problems such as smoking and meeting some of the need some of the time, we’re taking a more holistic approach.

We’re focusing on the developmental assets that make a young person much more likely to avoid risky health behaviors and to make healthier choices. The United Way of Delaware has an excellent track record of bringing community leaders, services and programs together toward a common goal. They will be leading up the effort to engage youth and communities – helping strengthen both under this common umbrella of asset building.

What’s also exciting is our work with Search Institute and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Their expertise in youth health and development has given us the model and the metrics to ensure that we are focusing where there is most need and most opportunity to make a difference.

This video offers a good introduction to what IM⁴⁰ is all about. We’ll be sharing more information in this space and welcome the opportunity to engage with others actively involved in youth health and development.

For more information, visit www.IM40.org.