The GivEm 40 Coalition first took center stage, quite literally, at the Rally Around Youth on May 20, 1999. Youth in our region had just taken the Search Institute survey to measure assets. The Rally was the first time we heard the surprising results - our youth need more support! During the day long Rally, youth and adult speakers taught us all about asset building. Youth delighted us with music and skits, and we all pledged to make a difference for kids. (Imagine 900 youth and adults chanting "GivEm 40!" to a reggae beat, and you get the picture.)
Since then, the Coalition has been reaching out to individuals and organizations to spur asset-building actions and initiatives on behalf of youth. Here are a few highlights of what we've accomplished to date:
• Youth and adults alike are discovering their personal power to be asset builders. People are waking up to the countless opportunities to connect with kids. After all, "Every contact with kids is an opportunity to make a difference."
• Nineteen school districts joined us in a school-community partnership. All the superintendents in the five-county area agreed to make student asset building one of their top five common goal areas. We are now working together to strengthen asset-building efforts among students, faculty, staff and administration.
• Last fall, five districts agreed to take that partnership one step further. Several more districts will join us next September. They formed the GivEm 40 Asset Pilot Schools Initiative in partnership with Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District. These schools are working very hard "behind the scenes" to create more caring and encouraging school climates. They want their schools to become places where all kids feel connected and encouraged with the support they need to thrive personally, socially and academically. Some of the changes schools have made include: involving youth in important decisions, like helping design new facilities, hiring new staff, and influencing the types of activities offered after-school, and insuring that each student forms a caring relationship with a at least one adult in the school.
• YouthFriends is connecting hundreds of caring adults with kids in schools throughout our region. This school-based mentoring program matches screened, trained community volunteers with children K-12 in meaningful relationships.
• Over 200 people were energized by the GivEm 40 Forum on Schools and Communities, held on April 11, 2001. Clay Roberts, national expert on youth development, inspired us to take action. We also heard from YouthFriends volunteers and students and adults from the pilot schools. They all shared the work they are doing to build more caring school climates. Audience members made pledges to take action and "GivEm 40!" by . . . "Being a positive role model to my peers." "Learning the names of kids at the bus stop and introducing them to my dog." "Making a point to smile at the young people I come into contact with." "Including more students on our school committees."
• The GivEm 40 Coalition was selected as one of four initiatives nationally to participate in the Search Institute's Dynamics of Community and Social Change Case Study Project. Their Field Research Team visited our region for two days in February 2001 to conduct meetings, interviews and a focus group of youth and adult Coalition partners. The results of this national research initiative will be published in the next academic year.
• A partnership of regional media has underwritten an asset public awareness campaign. All local TV, radio, newspapers and magazines provide like commitments of air-time and space to ads featuring local youth talking about assets in their own words. For the second year in a row, our media partners have donated more than $50,000 worth of advertising.
• The GivEm 40 Teen Troupe Theatre takes our show on the road, creatively spreading the asset message to diverse audiences throughout the region. Thanks to a grant from the Youth Advisory Councils of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, the troupe also started theater troupes in other communities in our region.
• The GivEm 40 Speaker's Bureau has made nearly 250 presentations to community groups. The Bureau, which includes adults and some youth, strive to increase common understanding of the asset model and survey results. Michigan State University Extension offices in our region have also organized Youth Speakers Bureaus in local communities to talk about the asset movement.
• The Michigan State University FACT Coalition awarded a three-year, $100,000 grant to provide faculty and professional staff support. As part of this partnership, the Coalition is using the Outcome-Asset Impact Model, which measures asset building within a community systems context.
• The GivEm 40 Coalition worked with the Youth Advisory Councils of the Regional Community Foundation to sponsor the Youth Summit on Violence Prevention: Teens Taking Action to GivEm 40. Over 500 young people representing every middle and high school in the region attended this event in December 1999.
• To qualify for local grants for youth programs now, applicants must show how their programs build assets. Our area's major funders (i.e., United Way of Northwest Michigan, the Youth Advisory Councils of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation and Rotary Charities of Traverse City) all include the asset model in funding criteria.