A Framework for Developing Assets

+ Asset Mapping in a youth development context:
Based on research involving over 2 million young people since 1989, the Search Institute has identified “40 Developmental Assets” as a framework for mapping assets for youth development.

The 40 assets framework is not meant to be exhaustive, but helps shine a light on the resources “in your hand” and assess how best to utilize them. The 40 Developmental Assets are:

“concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful young people in our culture.”

A sixteen year old boy ogles internet porn on his bedroom PC. His fourteen year old sister listens to Jessica Simpson's "Sweetest Sin" while text messaging gossip about her fantasy with green eyes. Their twelve year old brother lost his virginity last week.

And mom and dad are still irate about Janet Jackson's sunburst nipple ring.

It's time for a little perspective.

Justice is so easy even a five-year-old can do it.

It took me a long time to figure that out. Even though I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime committed to the idea of justice, determined to live for justice, I really couldn’t define it until last year. My latest journey toward better understanding why Jesus loves justice began roughly last March when I was asked to sit on a social justice panel at the 2006 Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI), and the moderator told the panelists he would begin by asking us to define it.

The MySpace Cry

What does the fact that so many kids share intimacies online say about the church?

Jesus once asked His disciples: "'Are you listening to Me? Really listening?'" (Matt. 11:15, The Message). Thousands of teens in our society are asking the same thing, as evidenced by the comments they generate on Web sites such as MySpace, a site designed to help them connect electronically with other young people. Many of their comments are graphic statements about the issues they confront every day: emotional conflicts, relationship dramas, family strife, sexuality, insecurities, purpose.

Take the MySpace weblog of Ariel (not her real name), a girl I've known for nine years. We no longer attend the same church, but we've stayed connected through the Internet—and I know more about her now than I did when I was her youth pastor.

Why? Because in the two years since we had regular contact, she's amplified her voice online. Subjects that used to stay hidden she now freely discusses on her personal MySpace Web site.

A more high-profile case is that of 18-year-old James Dungy, the son of Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy. In December 2005, James' girlfriend found him dead in his college apartment.

For weeks the public wondered how such an apparently well-adjusted boy from a great family could commit suicide. Then an investigative journalist found his MySpace account, which contained troubling clues.

Ariel and James are not exceptional. According to BusinessWeek, Wired, Time and other periodicals, 87 percent of young people ages 12 to 17 use the Internet.

On average, teens spend 72 hours a week consuming digital media by watching TV, listening to music, playing video games and socializing online. For nearly two of those hours, they ingest multiple media streams simultaneously, iPods blaring in their ears as they surf the Web and plan dates via text messaging.

And increasingly they communicate on personal Web sites hosted by online social networks such as MySpace, Facebook and Xanga. For 1-1/2 hours a day, teens make use of free Web space on these sites to meet friends, watch music videos, gossip, post photos and share intimate details about their lives.

Some sites generate so much traffic they become part of our vernacular. "Google," for example, is now a verb synonymous with online searching. Imagine the influence of MySpace, the leading social network site, which has 2-1/2 times more traffic than Google!

Founded by a 20-something college student and sold in July 2005 to publishing giant Rupert Murdoch for $580 million, MySpace is nothing short of a pop-culture phenomenon. Membership had quadrupled to 40 million by December 2005 and had skyrocketed to more than 150 million a year later.

BusinessWeek called the millions with MySpace accounts the "MySpace Generation." But even as MySpace membership continues to swell, teens are migrating to sites like Stickam and DailyMotion, which the New York Times has called "Web sites without rules."

What does the fact that so many kids feel the need to share intimacies online rather than with a trusted confidante, such as a youth pastor, parent or close family friend, say about the church? How can we engage this growing, global population?

Perhaps what we must do first is try to understand them by inhabiting their space and truly listening to them. Then we can move on to praying for them, forgiving them, restoring them, guiding them and loving them.

John tells us in his gospel that almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, "became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood"—our space—in order to engage us (John 1:14). He was neither shocked by our sin nor offended by our lifestyle. Now He invites us to love the MySpace community, reminding us that whatever we do for one of the least of His brothers, we do for Him (see Matt. 25:40).

Like Ariel and James, millions of Jesus' little brothers and sisters have carved their space on MySpace and beg those of us with ears to hear them. They ask: "Are you listening to me? Really listening?"

They are on their Big Brother's mind. He's listening. He cares. Do you?

Jeremy Del Rio, Esq., advises churches, ministries, and community groups about strategic planning, youth culture, and community development. Visit him online at www.jeremydelrio.com.