Youth is a time of transition that requires the ongoing support of family, neighbourhood, school, peer group and the adults in the community to negotiate successfully. All too frequently, communities focus on youth weaknesses and try to 'fix' them which is not well-accepted by youth. Instead, our initiatve will focus on building assets or strengths so that wehn the challenges emerge, youth can use their strengths and capacity to negotiate them successfully.

The goals of the Youth pillar of the Social Development Division:

• To develop an asset-building framework paper to guide the community's work with youth, and
• To introduce an asset-building framework as both a guide and lens through which to examine existing work with youth.

The core actions for 2010 include:

• Use the framework as a lens to examine the work in several locations, many of which should be located in the West Flat. This neighbourhood has the largest number of the city's youth (21%) and the neighbourhood with:
  • the highest number of risks:
    • crime
    • gangs
    • food insecurity
    • early school leaving
    • teen pregnancy
    • single parent families
    • families living below the Low-Income Cut-off (LICO)
  • the highest number of families on Social Assistance
  • high mobility
  • high rates of family violence
  • increased fire-setting behaviour
  • vulnerable housing, and
  • substance abuse
• Use the 40 Developmental Assets evaluation developed by the Search Institute to discern the assets of youth in these locations,
• Use the Asset lens for existing activities and the results of the asset assessment to develop an action plan for the 2010-11 school year,
• Involve the Youth Committee of Council as a source of brainstorming and ideas for solutions, and
• Develop a series of fact sheets to communicate the framework and the results to the community.

For more information, please contact:

Greg Zeeben Director of Community Services Phone: (306) 953-4800 E-mail: gzeeben@citypa.com

City of Prince Albert
Community Services Department
1084 Central Avenue
Prince Albert, SK
S6V 7P3