–What are 'Assets'
–Alaska Assets Get Nationwide Attention
–Build Assets It's the Constitution
–Indicators and Behavior Patterns
–T.O.P.S.
–AASB Grant for Alaska ICE
–Curriculum Activites
–Helping Kids Succeed- Alaskan Style
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Assets magazine, Summer 1998
Fortunately in Alaska, community support of children is a value deeply embedded in the many culture of this vast state. As Alaskans readily embrace asset building, they are giving the nation a model for honoring diverse traditions and weaving them into the growing asset-building movement.
Assets Alaskanized. Derek Peterson brought the framework of developmental assets to Alaska in 1995. Hired by the Association of Alaska School Boards to serve as director of Child and Youth Advocacy. Peterson was charged with shifting the schools' focus from fixing problems to bolstering broader community support for youth. Soon after, at a youth conference, Peterson met a colleague with a similar charge from a different organization. As State Adolescent Health Coordinator, Becky Judd had been hired by the Alaska Public Health Division to find ways to promote positive outcomes rather than simply preventing problems. Their collaboration led to the Alaska Initiative for Community Empowerment, which has spread the asset message to communities and schools throughout the state.
"Asset building works well because it's easy for people to understand," says Judd. "It's just common sense. It focuses on positive, simple, everyday actions that any of us can do whether we have children in our lives as family members or extended family."
Throughout the state, Alaskans have found creative ways to include asset building in the daily rhythms of life?
An Anchorage electronics company, for example, incorporates asset discussions into its monthly staff meetings;
A village police officer distributes asset materials to troubled families when he goes out on a call;
Public health nurses in Kodiak talk to parents about asset building during well-child exams;
A Seward hotel owner plans to put copies of What Kids Need to Succeed in all his guest rooms; and
Derek Peterson has conducted asset-building workshops for 31 of the state's 53 school districts, and the demand continues.
"Most importantly," explains Judd, "asset building works in Alaska because it fits with existing cultural values." Those cultural values–strong, extended families, broad community support of children, traditional practices, personal contact, and use of stories–have all been used to work with the asset framework to fit Alaska.
Collaboration leads to innovation . Perhaps the initiative's most far-reaching innovation has been the creation of an Alaska-specific book of ideas for building assets, which was developed in consultation with Search Institute. Because the geography and culture of Alaska is so diverse, initiative organizers believed that distributing such a book would reach the widest possible audience.
A case study in how a state makes asset building fit the specific needs of its residents, the manuscript for Helping Kids Succeed–Alaskan Style was thoughtfully shaped by a diverse group of ten Native content specialists. Born and raised in village Alaskan from Tlingit, Athabascan, Inupiaq, Yup'ik and other tribes, they agreed to come together for a three-day retreat earlier this year. In addition to bringing their own personal stories to the table, the content specialists were asked to interview at least five other people in advance about positive influences in their lives.
One of the content specialists who worked on the book was Ebba Paniptchuk, a Yup'ik Eskimo who works as an education aide with the 78 elementary-age chidlren in the Shaktoolik school located about 160 miles south of Nome. "Using assets helps us motivate parents in different ways," says Paniptchuk. The traditional Native symbol of the dream catcher, for example, has become a metaphor for Alaska's asset work and drives home the importance of widespread support for youth. As each parent comes into the school to be involved for any reason, a colored thread is added to a large dream catcher kept on display.
"Assets are the supporting threads and connectors," explains Derek Peterson "but there's no one right way to build assets. The most important thing is that the asset gets built. One village builds assets different from another but what's most important that each kid feels that support. That's why it's worked so well in Alaska. A native elder once told me that asset building is just 40 ways to describe love."
Spreading the message far and wide, organizers plan to distribute 42,000 copies of Helping Kids Succeed–Alaskan Style around the state. Some school districts have ordered enough copies to give one to every family in the district.
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