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News: Character & Asset Builders Newletter

Fall 2006

Welcome to a new school year!

Our newsletter is distributed to Santa Barbara Schools, youth serving agencies, law enforcement, probation and other interested individuals. We invite your stories surrounding your Asset rich projects, student stories of Asset rich actions and any other ideas, projects or thoughts. You can post pictures and your information on our website www.youthoutreachciymca.org The link is down at the near bottom left and states “Message Board”.

We strive to offer a networking and clearing house venue for Santa Barbara County Character and Asset Builders for interfacing, connecting, idea sharing and collaboration. National Character Counts week is October 15-21!!! Click here for free resources!

Assets for Santa Barbara Youth Coalition
The Assets for Santa Barbara Youth Coalition is well underway with three projects all aimed at a “community initiative” that integrates the 40 Developmental Assets into our Santa Barbara community. The projects are, 1). A Neighborhood Pilot Project, 2). Santa Barbara’s First Youth Summit in conjunction with Artists Field Day 2007 themed Youth Expression and 3). An information and survey gathering committee. For more information on these projects or to be involved visit our website listed above or contact Lisa at LisaTM@ciymca.org .

New!!! Preschool Alliance
Lisa Thomas Macrum from Youth Outreach Programs and Trudy Adair-Verbais from SBCEO are working together to integrate 8 preschool sites with the 40 Developmental Assets framework in North County. This summer Lisa Thomas Macrum, trained all staff at the 8 sites in the 40 Developmental Asset Framework.. Planned for this year are parent trainings, supply of materials and mid-year refresher training for staff.

New!!! Partnership with Goleta Valley Jr. High School
Goleta Valley Jr. High School has adopted the Asset Framework as a school wide endeavor. They have partnered with Youth Outreach Programs of the Channel Islands YMCA to assist them in their integration. Approximately 60 teachers were trained by Lisa this summer with follow ups planned throughout the year.

Call for Participants for S.B.’s Youth Summit!

We are seeking youth from all Santa Barbara secondary schools to participate. The Summit is scheduled for April 28th, 2007 at the SB Courthouse from 9:00-1:00 with Artists Field Day 2007 in the sunken gardens from 1:00-4:00. This year’s theme is Youth Expression featuring youth in the performing arts. Ideally, we would like a club from each school to participate. The project is a 4 months long with meetings 2 to 4 times per month. There will be a 2 month pre-summit component and a 2 month post-summit component. Contact Lisa at 569-1103 ext 11 or email LisaTM@ciymca.org for more info.

Youth Summit 2007’s theme is on safety, empowerment, strategy and skill building with and for each other. Information on unsafe environments will be explored with focus on each school site by the Youth representing that school.

“Every individual has the right to be spared from oppression and repeated, intentional humiliation. It is a fundamental, democratic right to not be victimized in school”. Dan Olweus, 1991

For information on 40 Developmental Assets training, Character Counts training, anti-bullying strategies, assertiveness training and other Character and Asset building strategies contact LisaTM@ciymca.org

For more thorough information on bullying visit www.safeschoolambassadors.org

Youth Summit 2007 plans on bringing the Safe School Ambassadors Program to do a presentation.

Children Thrive When They Feel Safe

Bullying is the most common detriment to Safety
All children and youth are affected by bullying
Most of the children affected are bystanders
- 1-5% Bully-victims
- 8-10% Victims
- 10-12% Bullies
- 70-80% By standers

By standers – (70-80%)

Research shows that bystanders are negatively impacted by witnessing bullying.

Anger and feeling of helplessness
Guilt for not intervening
Worry that they might be the next target (Ross, 1996)

A climate of fear

When bullying is witnessed by others and goes unpunished, it can create a climate of fear with widespread effect that:
Inhibits learning due to major distraction
Undermines enjoyment of free-time periods
Creates fear of certain areas of school ie., lunchroom
Elevates sense of vulnerability traveling to and from school
Students can’t truly learn in a fear-based environment

Abraham Mazlow’s hierarchy of human needs shows that when physical & emotional safety are unmet they are unable to focus on higher order needs.

Assertiveness Skills for Children

Aims:

Introduce children to new ways of coping which will give them strategies in dealing with bullying
Teach children to think differently about themselves by giving them praise and encouragement to be assertive
Build Assets in the categories of Support, Empowerment, Boundaries & Expectations, Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies and Positive Identity

Assertion Theory is based on the premise that every individual possesses basic human rights

the right to be treated with respect
the right to make mistakes and be responsible for them
the right to refuse requests without having to feel guilty or selfish
the right to ask for what you want (realizing that the other person has the right to say no)
the right to be listened to and to be taken seriously
the right to say “I don’t understand”
the right to ask for information

Three Response Styles

Passive – to behave as if other people’s rights matter more than theirs.
Aggressive – to behave as if your rights matter more than those of other people.
Assertive – to respect themselves and others equally.

Making Requests

Be clear about what you want
Plan and practice
Make your request short (“That is mine. I want you to give it back”)

Specific Techniques

Use “I” statements
Be as specific and clear as possible about what you want, think and feel.
- ”I want to…” , ”I don’t want you to…”
- ”Would you…?”, ”I liked it when you did that.”
- ”I have a different opinion. I think that…”
- ”I have mixed reactions. I agree with these aspects for these reasons, but I am disturbed about these aspects for these reasons”

Lack of assertiveness is one of the key causes of conflict

Asserting yourself will not guarantee you happiness or fair treatment by others, nor will it solve problems or guarantee that others will be assertive and not aggressive. However, you will feel that you did your best in respecting yourself and others promoting your personal integrity.

Acting assertively will allow you to feel self-confident and will gain the respect of your peers and friends. It fosters honest relationships, self worth and self value. This will improve your decision making ability therefore increasing your opportunities in life.

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