Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol

TAKING A STAND FOR YOUTH

Changing Perceptions and Policies surrounding Underage Drinking

For Immediate Release

January 25, 2007

Contact: Erin Roop

410.901.8131

410.330.7994 (cell)

Family re-SOLUTIONS

How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? Many people fizzle out on their goals by this time… 3 weeks into 2007, and where are you? Have you been eating properly? Have you been getting active? Have you been watching less TV? Have you been spending more time with the kids?

It’s NOT too late!!! Every day is a new chance to make a difference. Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol, Dorchester County’s Underage Drinking Prevention Coalition, has been looking at the 40 Developmental Assets, and how they can benefit the youth of our community to make good choices, and become the constructive members of society we would all be proud of! We will be submitting articles on a weekly basis to focus on these assets, and some of the easy things that we can all do to assist our youth. You know the old saying… “It takes a village”!

Developmental Assets are those things that can help create leaders, maintain good health habits, value diversity, and succeed in school, work, and life as a whole. These assets can also protect from problem alcohol use, violence, illicit drug use, and sexual activity at a young age. There are 40 of them, so of course it would be overwhelming to list them all at once. To make this a little more manageable, let’s look this week at External versus Internal Assets.

External Assets are those things that we, as a community, can have influence over to create a positive environment:

  • Support: young people need to be surrounded by people who love, care for, appreciate, and accept them.
  • Empowerment: young people need to feel valued and valuable. This happens when youth feel safe and respected.
  • Boundaries and Expectations: young people need clear rules, consistent consequences for breaking rules, and encouragement to do their best.
  • Constructive Use of Time: young people need opportunities – outside of school – to learn and develop new skills and interests with other youth and adults.

Internal Assets are those things that really develop internally, within a young persons’ self that can be nurtured by those External Assets, but really come from within:

  • Commitment to Learning: young people need a sense of the lasting importance of learning and a belief in their own abilities
  • Positive Values: young people need to develop strong guiding values or principles to help them make healthy life choices.
  • Social Competencies: young people need the skills to interact effectively with others, to make difficult decisions, and to cope with new situations.
  • Positive Identity: young people need to believe in their own self-worth and to feel that they have control over the things that happen to them.

Before we look at each of the assets in those categories, think for a moment about the youth in your life… Maybe you aren’t a parent at this point, but anyone can have influence in the life of a child/young adult! What can you do today, or within a week, to help a young person (or more than one) with one or more of those Internal or External Asset Categories?

On average, males have fewer assets than girls, and the number of assets per child is higher in middle school than high school. More than half of youth have 20 or fewer assets. Is there something you see in the community that is holding youth back from success in one or more of those categories? What can you do to help?

To learn more before the next edition of this article, you can log on to or call 410.901.8131