40 Developmental Assets: SOCIAL COMPETENCIES

Making personal choices and building interpersonal skills

Social competencies are the skills all people need in order to navigate successfully through life.  Without social competencies, people lack the essential skills they need to live their values, contribute in meaningful ways, get along with others, and be responsible members of society.  Young people need to practice these skills in order to master them.  Young people especially need adults and peers who demonstrate, teach and practice skills with them.  They need adults and peers who watch how they are doing with their skills and who give them feedback along the way and who can let them make and learn from mistakes.

HERE ARE THE FACTS

Research shows the more personal skills young people have to interact with others and make decisions, the more likely they are to grow up healthy. Search Institute has identified five assets in the Social Competencies category crucial for helping young people: Planning and Decision Making, Interpersonal Competence, Cultural Competence, Resistance Skills, and Peaceful Conflict Resolution. Two of these assets—Planning and Decision Making, and Resistance Skills—focus on personal choice. The other three focus on healthy interpersonal relationships.

TIPS FOR BUILDING THESE ASSETS

Tolerance, negotiation and compromise, sensitivity to others’ feelings and needs, and appreciation of your own and others’ cultures are critical skills to teach and model. Help young people learn these skills by role-playing various social situations, following these steps: 1. Demonstrate the skill while the young person watches; 2. Do the skill together; 3. Let the young person do the skill alone while you watch; and 4. Provide feedback.

Social competencies are the life skills young people need to be independent and capable. Young people develop social competencies when you:

  • Introduce them to new people and things;
  • Model respectful behaviors by being kind to others; and
  • Create opportunities for them to use their skills.

HOW CAN YOU HELP BUILD SOCIAL COMPETENCIES?

  • In your home and family: Let your child do things by himself or herself, even if it’s not the way you would do it. Allow your child to make mistakes and learn from them.
  • In your neighborhood and community: If there is a neighborhood disagreement, model the skills of negotiation and compromise to work toward a peaceful resolution.
  • In your school or youth program: Encourage young people to plan with the use of agendas and calendars. Help them to learn and practice their planning and decision-making skills by engaging them in long-term projects. Teach them how to set short-term goals to keep their project on track and meet the final deadline.

Want to know more about Search Institute’s other seven asset categories or the 40 Developmental Assets and ideas for helping young people build them? Visit www.ecabnetwork.org

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Developmental Assets® are positive factors within young people, families, communities, schools, and other settings that research has found to be important in promoting the healthy development of young people. Adapted from Instant Assets: 52 Short and Simple E-Mails for Sharing the Asset Message. Copyright © 2007 by Search Institute®, 877-240-7251; www.search-institute.org. This message may be reproduced for educational, noncommercial uses only (with this copyright line). All rights reserved.

 

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About Us The Essex County Asset Builder (ECAB) Network creates regional connections and supports for individuals, families and organizations from Amesbury, Georgetown, Newbury, Rowley, Salisbury and Newburyport, in using a positive youth development approach to help youth thrive. Positive Youth Development Being a part of the ECAB Network brings local and regional opportunities.  Locally, communities have access to trainings, data, and best practices, and receive guidance on implementation and outreach strategies that build positive youth development possibilities.  Communities also get the benefit of regionalizing efforts, where networking, combining resources, current policies, and a shared vision strengthen the towns and cities as well as the region. History Recently, the communities of Amesbury, Georgetown, Newbury, Rowley, Salisbury and Newburyport came together to form the Essex County Asset Builder Network.  Funded by a three year grant, the goal of this Network is to create a common language of asset- based youth development (creating protective factors). It has been shown that youth who have more assets are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.  This grant will use the 40 Developmental Assets framework to build these protective factors and reduce risk behaviors by focusing on both the youth and the environment that shapes them. The community partnership will enhance the great work already being done to support youth and families, as well as expand community supports, opportunities, and resources. Additionally, the grant will collect and disseminate regional data, coordinate shared resources and bring educational opportunities for various sectors of the community. Goal To spread the philosophy and practice of the positive youth development approach through implementation of 40 Developmental Asset framework within communities across the region. We will accomplish this goal by: Mission To use a positive youth development approach to build networks within each community and across the region that help decrease risk behaviors in youth and produce a healthier community. Vision A network of communities that welcome, value and empower youth through meaningful opportunities and collaborative efforts to support and strengthen youth assets and increase healthy decision making.