Greetings Kent Community,

As parents and educators, we want to do anything in our power to ensure that our children thrive, though it’s not always clear to us what our children need to set up for success in school and beyond. In the late 1990s the Search Institute published the Developmental Assets Framework that identified 40 positive supports, strengths, and qualities that young people need to succeed. Ongoing research and extensive work with youth since then suggests that working to intentionally build assets in our children can have powerful, lasting results. Increased assets in kids correlates with greater academic success, social engagement, resilience, confidence, and general life happiness.

The framework categorizes these 40 assets into internal assets, the social-emotional strengths, values, and commitments that are nurtured within young people; and external assets, the relationships and opportunities youth need in their families, schools, and communities. A sample of important internal assets include achievement motivation, learning engagement, bonding to school, reading for pleasure, cultural competence, sense of purpose, honesty, and responsibility. Some important external assets include positive family communication, other adult relationships, caring school climate, service to others, school and neighborhood boundaries, and high expectations. While it is not necessary for children to have all 40 assets, the language of the framework is helpful for parents and educators to understand as we decide which areas of emphasis are likely to support our kids to thrive.

Let’s zoom in on asset #9, service to others. Volunteering and community service do more than allow children to help the community — these activities also provide children with positive experiences, relationships, and connections, a gateway to increasing many other internal and external assets! Opportunities to serve others provides great benefit to the one serving as well as the people that person serves.

At Kent, we appreciate and value those students who have chosen to serve their community, and we will celebrate these students at our upcoming community service assembly on Tuesday, January 22nd. During this assembly we will also introduce Together We Can, a new collective impact community service approach open to all Kent students. Together We Can participants will research areas of need in our community and plan a service project for each grade level to complete this year. Anyone can participate and it’s completely voluntary, and we hope that many students will join us in this effort. More information will be coming home soon, and if you or your child have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kids who engage in community service tend to enjoy higher academic performance, increased self-esteem, better problem-solving skills, and increased community involvement as an adult. And, service can be super fun. Join us, because together we can improve our community and help our kids.