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Search Institute

By Krysta Oechsle

Graduate Student, Grand Valley State University


Definition

Search Institute is "an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization whose mission is to advance the well-being of adolescents and children by generating knowledge and promoting its application" (Search Institute 2002). It achieves its mission by conducting and producing practical research, publications, tools, training, and conferences for community leaders, young people, and adults who work with youth.

The publications, training and public awareness work of Search Institute is built on a framework developed by their researchers, called the 40 developmental assets. The assets "are positive experiences, relationships, opportunities, and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy, caring, and responsible" (Ibid.). Surveys conducted with over one million middle-school through high-school aged youth have confirmed that the more of these factors present in a young person's life, the more healthy, happy and successful is he or she.

Search Institute's work is supported through philanthropic donations, grants and contracts from a number of sources (ie., foundations, corporations, the government), and revenue from product sales and services. Its annual budget is about nine million dollars (Ibid.).


Historic Roots

Search Institute was founded in 1958 by Dr. Merton P. Strommen. His original focus was on the healthy development of young people as an applied social science. The institute initially researched youth in religious settings. Today, the mission has expanded to become a much broader focus of healthy child and youth development in the many and varied settings in society and in which youth function (ie., home, school, church, youth organizations and community groups).

Among the different factors influencing young people today, many can have a long-term positive or negative impact. These include things such as: family relationships, support from members of the community, the effectiveness of the local school, peer influence, values, and social skills. However, these different things are typically studied or identified separately. Search Institute devised a paradigm (a model) that identifies the forty most relevant factors affecting a youth's healthy development (termed "40 developmental assets"). These factors are categorized in the following ways: support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, positive identity, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and constructive use of time.

The developmental asset framework and terminology began with thirty assets when it was introduced back in 1990. A report titled The Troubled Journey: A Portrait of 6th-12th Grade Youth provided information that identified and measured the initial assets brought to light from a broad survey of young people (Search Institute 2002). Over the years, the number of factors grew as Search Institute continued to research, facilitate studies, conduct discussion and focus groups in an effort to learn more about youth and how they thrive.


Importance

The areas of work within Search Institute assure broad dissemination and application of its asset model. These areas include research, communication, networking, community support and training. The following provides specifics about each area:

Research: Search Institute uses applied scientific research on youth development to find ways "to strengthen and deepen the scientific foundations of the developmental assets framework through studies on positive child and adolescent development" (Ibid.). Search's survey services unit provides profiles of youth for interested school districts and communities to better understand their young people's health, based on the developmental asset framework.

Communication: Building developmental assets is done through a wide variety of publications and tools useful to leaders, parents and young people in any organization or community location. Search Institute publishes resources which are presenting, interpreting and applying the research, while sharing innovative ideas from communities involved in "asset-building" (Ibid). They also provide information through their Web site and quarterly Assets magazine.

Networking: There are a number of opportunities provided by Search Institute for leaders and practitioners to learn from each other. Among these are Search's annual Healthy Communities - Healthy Youth National Conference, state asset-building initiatives, partnerships with national organizations and online bulletin boards.

Community Support: "Search Institute provides limited strategic consulting and telephone technical assistance to support and learn from community asset-building initiatives" (Ibid.).

Training: In partnership with Vision Training Associates, Search Institute has developed training and a train-the-trainer model for numerous groups within communities. This type of training gives more people the opportunity to learn about the developmental asset framework and put it to use in their community's many environments.


Ties to the Philanthropic Sector

Search Institute partnered with The Colorado Trust in 1997 to begin Assets for Colorado Youth, seeking to move the citizens and organizations of Colorado toward an asset-building model. The initiative became an independent, Colorado-based nonprofit in October 2000.

Search Institute is involved in many evaluation and training activities in communities across the country. Many of these are for schools, youth-serving organizations or whole communities, helping them to engage the asset-based model in the lives of their children. While going about the process, they seek to find areas that could be improved upon, helping the community to accomplish their ultimate goals. One way this starts is through the schools that adopted an asset-based model of education, sparking interest in all other areas of their communities. In this process, nonprofit organizations (particularly youth organizations and religious congregations) become involved in incorporating Search Institute’s work into their institutions and communities. The response to the organization’s assets model, training support, and community-based work has been fruitful¾“to date, 560 communities across the United States and Canada have formed asset-building initiatives. In addition, 24 states and two Canadian provinces have formed statewide networks” (Ibid.).

 
Key Related Ideas
 
Americas Promise: the Alliance for Youth serves as a nationwide catalyst, urging communities and public, private, and nonprofit organizations to focus their talents and resources on our nation’s positive youth development. They have five fundamental resources that they seek to provide to all youth: ongoing relationships with caring adults, safe places and structured activities during non-school hours, a healthy start for a healthy future, marketable skills through effective education, and opportunities to serve (Search Institute 2002).
 
Healthy Youth – Healthy Communities, a project of Search Institute, is a national initiative to support communities in their work with developmental assets. Working to motivate and equip individuals, organizations, and their leaders across the nation to build developmental assets for youth together, Search Institute is helping to nurture competent, caring and responsible children and adults (Ibid.). 
 
Additionally, the ideas related to the developmental assets work of Search Institute are too numerous to list. Among the most obvious and relevant are: boundaries, caring adults, commitment to learning, communities, constructive use of time, empowerment, expectations, human potential, life skills, networking, positive identity, positive youth development, religion, research, self-esteem, support, training, and values. 
 
Important People Related to the Topic
 
Peter L. Benson: Dr. Benson has served as Search Institute’s president since 1985. He is a national speaker, author of numerous publications about healthy youth development, and has led the organization to phenomenal expansion in the number of communities it serves and its publications sales.
 
Merton P. Strommen: Dr.Strommen was the founder of Lutheran Youth Research in 1958 and served as its president for twenty-six years. In 1957, he had “proposed a scientific study of the concerns and needs of Lutheran youth” to satisfy the requirements of his dissertation and the requests of several Lutheran synods to develop a youth program (Search Institute 2003). Dr. Strommen grew to be a pioneer in youth development and religious research (Ibid.). Lutheran Youth Research, renamed as Search Institute, grew in its scope, size, and depth.


Related Nonprofit Organizations
 
Assets for Colorado Youth, started by the Search Institute and the Colorado Trust takes the stance that youth must be respected, supported and valued through an expanding network of educators, youth-serving organizations, policy leaders and others. The work of the organization is based upon the developmental assets framework and methodology.  
 
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, in existence since 1948, works to help disadvantaged youth and their families. The Foundation’s mission is to “foster public policies, human service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families” (Annie E. Casey 2003). This foundation provides a range of publications on issues that affect youth and families in the U.S., the most notable being the annual Kids Count, which documents the status of kids on a national and state-by-state basis. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a funder of Search Institute’s work.
 
National Mentoring Partnership is “an advocate for the expansion of mentoring and a resource for mentors and mentoring initiatives nationwide” (National Mentoring Partnership 2003). Mentoring is related to the building of developmental assets and the Partnership has useful ideas on how to implement a mentorship program or how one can do it on their own. 
 
Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, founded in 1954, is one of the country’s largest private foundations. Its funding areas are related to health and community development. These areas include cardiovascular clinical research; aging and quality of life; capital programs; and various special projects (e.g., art acquisition for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery; Donald W. Reynolds 2003). The Foundation is a strong supporter of asset development. It provided some of the initial funding for the original research on the developmental assets, as well as funding for asset-building initiatives in Arkansas, Nevada, and Oklahoma (Ibid.). The Foundation’s financial support has also been used to develop tools, networks and services in support of asset building.
 
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, formed with a merger of Lutheran Brotherhood and Aid Association for Lutherans, “is a faith-based membership organization called to improve the quality of life of its members, their families, and their communities by providing unparalleled solutions that focus on financial security, wellness and caring for others“ (Thrivent Financial 2003). Thrivent has been the corporate sponsor of Search Institute's Healthy Communities – Healthy Youth initiative since 1995 (Ibid.). In addition, it has also partnered with Search Institute to conduct a major national study of social norms¾Grading Grown-Ups: American Adults Report on Their Real Relationships with Kids.
 
 
Related Web Sites
 
The Annie E. Casey Foundation Web site, at http://www.aecf.org, provides information on the Foundation’s history, programs, grant guidelines, publications, and, most notably, an online version of the popular Kids Count annual look at the status of America’s children. The site also offers downloadable versions of its publications done in partnership with Search Institute.   
 
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Web site, at http://www.thrivent.com, provides a wealth of information on financial issues, including investments, annuities, financial planning, insurance, and more. There is also a section of the site entitled “Youth and Money” with a game called “Rock the Cause.” This game allows a young person to decide on charities he or she would like to send donations to, as the game’s wealthy rock star.


Bibliography and Internet Sources
 
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Homepage. [cited 9 February 2003]. Available from http://www.aecf.org. 
National Mentoring Partnership. Who We Are. [cited 10 February 2003]. Available from http://www.mentoring.org/about_us/who_we_are.adp.   
Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. Pioneer of Possibilities. [cited 10 February 2003]. Available from http://www.dwreynolds.org/AboutFoundation/FoundationHistory/Pioneer.htm.
Search Institute. About Search Institute. [cited 20 September 2002]. Available from http://www.search-institute.org/aboutsearch.
Search Institute. A Timeline History of Search Institute, 1958-1998. [cited 10 February 2003]. Available from http://www.search-institute.org/aboutsearch/history.htm#New%20Era.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Mission & Vision. [updated 10 February 2003; cited 10 February 2003]. Available from http://www.thrivent.com/aboutus/missionvision.html.  

 

This paper was developed by a student taking a Philanthropic Studies course taught at Grand Valley State University. It is offered by Learning To Give and Grand Valley State University.
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