All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents, 2nd Edition - Softcover

Benson, Peter L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 078798518X ISBN 13: 9780787985189

Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2006

Synopsis

The measure of a society's health is how well it takes care of the youngest generation. By this standard, we fail. But All Kids Are Our Kids offers an approach to unleash the extraordinary power of community when people unite around a widely shared vision of healthy child and adolescent development.
All Kids Are Our Kids introduces forty Developmental Assets--building blocks of healthy development that are essential for all youth, regardless of their background. The challenge for all segments of the community--families, neighbors, schools, congregations, employers, youth organizations, and more--is to share in the responsibility for taking action to ensure that all kids have what they need to grow up healthy, successful, and caring. This new edition includes new evidence, cites successful cases, and makes recommendations for energizing individuals, families, and community action.

Praise for All Kids Are Our Kids

"A practical, concrete blueprint for helping young people succeed because of supportive communities."
--Donald T. Floyd, Jr., president and CEO, National 4-H Council

"For two decades, Peter Benson has been America's most eloquent and persuasive voice for a new, positive approach to enhancing the lives of our nation's youth. If policy makers, practitioners, and researchers read only one book about how to act in support of our nation's youth, then this is it!"
--Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and director, Institute forApplied Research in Youth Development, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University

"Peter Benson continues to remind us of how far short of the mark we have fallen in meeting the needs of our youngest generation. But then he provides a gift: a unifying vision that we can all rally around: parents, neighbors, youth-serving organizations, and ultimately whole communities committed to the healthy development of all our kids."
--Judy Vredenburgh, president and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

"Benson's approach is the best formula we have for building communities to meet the developmental needs of young people. Anyone who is concerned about the future of our society should read this book."
--William Damon, professor of education, Stanford University, and director, Stanford Center on Adolescence

About this title

From the Inside Flap

All Kids Are Our Kids challenges all segments of the community-families, neighbors, schools, congregations, youth organizations, local governments, employers, and residents-to reclaim their capacity and responsibility for raising healthy, successful, and caring children and adolescents. Based on research from the renowned Search Institute, this groundbreaking critique of American culture offers practical strategies for uniting and mobilizing communities around a shared vision of healthy development.Peter L. Benson introduces forty developmental assets-building blocks of healthy development. These assets-such as family support, intergenerational relationships, clear and consistent boundaries and expectations, participation in constructive activities, and community focus on values-are essential for all youth, regardless of background. Yet too few young people have these support structures in their lives. To increase assets among all kids, the author provides a compelling vision for a healthy community and specific recommAndations for individual, family and community action.This persuasive book demonstrates that building these developmental assets is critical for communities and society. When young people experience more of these assets, many forms of high-risk behavior sharply decline, including alcohol and other drug use, too-early sexual activity, violence and school failure. And just as significantly, increasing a young person's developmental assets enhances the competencies and skills necessary for healthy adulthood.Good Families are not Enough

About the Author

Peter L. Benson, Ph.D., is president of Search Institute, an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. He is widely recognized as one of the leading contributors to the field of child and adolescent development.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 078798518X
• ISBN 13: 9780787985189
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 429