Connection Matters: Amplify the Strengths in Your Community Through Connection!
Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
Southeast Island School District
Second Presenter's Institution
Brightways Learning
Third Presenter's Institution
NA
Fourth Presenter's Institution
NA
Fifth Presenter's Institution
NA
Location
Session 5 Breakouts
Strand #1
Home: Family & Community Engagement
Strand #2
Home: Family & Community Engagement
Relevance
The Integrative Youth DevelopmentTM provides a language and promising practices on which to build locally responsive programs that amplify the impact of what communities are already doing to support their youth. Together, youth and adults build personal webs of support, forming stronger networks and communities that can withstand immediate and longer-term challenges.
Brief Program Description
When youth and adults develop healthy connections, the impact sends positive ripples throughout schools and communities. These connections build webs of support that take youth from where they are to where they want to be in life. Learn a practical, easy-to-implement framework and language that will change the trajectory of students in the home, school, and in life.
Summary
When students and adults work, build, and grow together, so do communities as a whole. This is especially evident inside the school building. The more youth and adults have connections and work to deepen those connections through the lens of a strength-based framework, the healthier a community becomes. As youth and adults build webs of support within their communities, the less likely youth are to slip through the cracks.
Participants will learn about the Integrative Youth Development (IYD)TM framework. IYD combines the greatest research in youth development into one framework that can be measured. Programs are often deficit-based and focus on improving what is wrong. However, data indicate that by implementing a strengths-based approach -- i.e., focusing on what the school, class, and students are doing right -- the negatives diminish. The IYD framework makes this possible and measurable.
The IYD framework is made up of seven PHactorsTM:
PHactor Red - Rule of 5
Every child/youth needs to have and maintain at least five positive, caring adults ("Anchors") in his or her life who have and communicate high expectations for them.
PHactor Orange - Tangible Supports
Easy-to-measure environmental supports typically provided by an individual's family, school and larger community.
PHactor Yellow - Intangible Supports
Harder-to-measure supports that each individual holds and nurtures within. They are virtues, values, and behaviors that have been taught to, modeled for, and absorbed by the individual.
PHactor Green - The Child/Youth
The child/youth has innate resiliency factors (biological characteristics, talents, intelligences, and gifts), most of which can be grown.
PHactor Blue - Scissor Cuts
These are deficit behaviors/factors that can undercut a child/youth's ecological health
PHactor Indigo - Caring for the Carers
Each Anchor needs to have his/her own network of support. They need support in order to avoid "dropping the strings" in the "webs of support" of the children/youth that they anchor.
PHactor Violet - Social Norms
Climate or context have strong influence on what behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs the child/youth internalizes and/or participates in.
Evidence
An Alaska Native Education Program project report (July, 2015) to the U.S. Department of Education shared evaluation results from across its four partner school districts that showed not only had participating students increased their number of "Anchors" (caring and connected adults) from 2.9 to 4.6 on average, but they had also increased their depth of connectedness to adults from 14.1 to 25.6 on average. Furthermore, the report showed that students also increased their tangible and intangible supports, thereby growing their "web of support" overall. These support metrics increased by 5.6% and 8.5%, respectively. Student innate resilience (e.g., including grit and optimism) also increased by 21.3%. Risk factors (alcohol, drugs, abusive high risk behaviors, etc.) decreased by 7.9%. Improvement in social norms showed a gain of 2.5%. Reading and Math scores of participating students also increased during this time. Similar results have been attained by other schools and communities that have implemented Kaleidoscope Connect program components.
Learning Objectives
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Understanding of Integrative Youth Development
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Learning how to grow student’s resilience through connection.
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Developing and using a holistic lens by which to see youth and community
Biographical Sketch
David Pavish: David's combined 20 years of experience working with youth in direct care and administration in both the private and public sector has equipped him with a unique lens through which to see youth. His career with youth from all walks of life spans across the US and Canada. He was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and has had the privilege to work and live in several of Alaska’s rural communities. Throughout his career, the training he has received from some of the top youth and experiential education professionals in the U.S. and Canada provides him with a solid understanding of what youth need to succeed. David brings a fresh perspective on supporting and guiding youth through their life and career paths; understanding that life is a journey in which growth and learning has no end.
Amy McDonald: Amy has more than two decades of experience in K-12 education, including a K-8 Type B Teaching Certification and a Master’s in K-12 School Counseling. Amy has spent many years working in administrative roles and has an extensive background in supporting students from academics, to social-emotional learning, trauma informed care, strengths-building, and strategies for addressing the whole child. She has a leadership role co-developing and implementing Brightways Learning’s Kaleidoscope Connect program and has delivered engaging trainings with both youth and adults in the United States and Canada. She also worked in group homes and on a daily basis provides one-on-one support to students. Living in multi-ethnic communities has given Amy a fresh look at youth development as she continues to work in multiple school districts with youth and tribal organizations inside and outside Alaska.
Keyword Descriptors
youth-adult relationships, strength-based, webs of support
Presentation Year
2021
Start Date
3-9-2021 11:25 AM
End Date
3-9-2021 12:25 PM
Recommended Citation
McDonald, Amy and Pavish, David, "Connection Matters: Amplify the Strengths in Your Community Through Connection!" (2021). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 30.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2021/2021/30
Connection Matters: Amplify the Strengths in Your Community Through Connection!
Session 5 Breakouts
When youth and adults develop healthy connections, the impact sends positive ripples throughout schools and communities. These connections build webs of support that take youth from where they are to where they want to be in life. Learn a practical, easy-to-implement framework and language that will change the trajectory of students in the home, school, and in life.
