Sunday, May 17, 1998
Group focuses on community strengths
By Cathy Willoughby
Staff Writer
''Some see the glass as half full, while others see the glass as half empty.'' A group of community members are taking this adage further by building on the community strengths, rather than reacting to problems, especially with the youth.
Cathy Glassford and Karen Eastmon, from the Seneca County Family and Children First Council, brought back a wealth of ideas and enthusiasm towards an idea that is growing throughout the state.
In June of last year, they attended a workshop created by the Search Institute, which is a national research group that focuses on gathering information on youth and their development. ''Several community members who attended the training were interested in looking at the assets building approach. We were ready to look beyond the Family and Children's First Council,'' Eatmon said.
They decided to use two different approaches that were recommended for starting community asset building. One was the McKnight approach, which was a broader based community asset building, and the Search Institute's recommendations that were more directed towards youth, which became their rally point.
They still are seeking community members to join them to get the word out so that a county-wide training session can take place in the fall. ''Our goal is to train teams in each community, and that they would carry it from there so that it could start in their own neighborhoods,'' Eatmon reiterated.
Both cited several area counties, including Hancock, Wood and Crawford, which already have conducted trainings, and are starting to see their ideas come to fruition.
''The focus is on building on the community strengths. We want to build on what is already existing, and these are things that everybody can do. An example would be an intergenerational activity where seniors would come out and visit with children at the end of the school day,'' Eatmon said.
They said that the Search Institute identified 40 assets that are important for youth to have for healthy development. The more assets a youth has, the fewer high risk behaviors that individual will engage in.
Some of these are: family support; caring neighborhood and school environments; parental involvement in the school; that the young person does service in the community; feels safe at home, at school and in the neighborhood; spends time taking part in religious activities; reports doing at least one hour of homework a night; reads for pleasure; has the positive values of caring for others, honesty (even when it is difficult) and restraint; takes personal responsibilty for himself; knows how to plan ahead and make choices; has sensitivity and friendship skills; seeks to resolve conflict non-violently; feels he has control over things that happen to him; feels his life has a purpose; and is optimistic about his personal future.
''A lot of the assets need to be built through processes, but there are actually some concrete things that anyone can do to build on those. One group made porch cookies, and they invited everyone over so that they got to know their neighbors. We are starting with the youth, but we would like to branch out and make the whole community better,'' she said.
Glassford said that not everything that can be done involves a program, and is not necessarily time consuming. ''Sometimes it's the little things, like just being aware of our youth, being nice to them, smiling at them, or giving them a pat on the back,'' she said.
They hope to shift the community's way of thinking so that building assets becomes a part of other types of planning, including employee policies.
During a meeting last Thursday, volunteers agreed to head committees to start planning a training session for the rest of the community. More community members are needed to continue the process.
''We want to increase all youth assets in multiple ways,'' Eatmon told the group, ''but this is not just for youth. We are building youth assets, but we are building these for everybody. My vision is to see people sitting out on their porchs, because they want to sit and visit with each other, and to have the return of the cohesiveness of the neighborhoods.''