Assess the current reality by
identifying the community assets that serve to protect children and help them build
resiliency, as well as the factors that put children at risk.
1.
THINGS TO LOOK AT:
The Community: its demographics,
norms, concerns
The status of children
The assets of the community and the assets of its youth
Information about the community
resources available to develop the five fundamental resources defined by America's Promise
(www.americaspromise.org)
Specific protective and risk
factors in the local community
Child and youth development
theories and practices
2.
SOME RESOURCES FOR ASSESSMENT:
Several
years ago Dirigo Prevention
Coalition developed a Comparison of Assessment Models in use in Maine for our C4C&Y partner communities.
Dirigo Prevention
Coalition also developed a table that shows the different types of risk and protective
factors identified and used by a variety of prevention programs in Maine.
The
Search Institute has developed 40 Developmental Assets that all children and youth should
have and a survey tool to measure the extent to which the youth in a community feel that
the assets are present in their lives. The Developmental Assets approach has been
used successfully by several Maine communities.
