Over the past 50 years, researchers and theorists have been exploring the time honored cultural wisdom that all youth are more likely to thrive within a nurturing and supportive environment that provides opportunities for skill development and talent identification. And, within this circle of support, the youth is exposed to values, behaviors, and beliefs that they will absorb into their personality, and give them more options in the environments outside this circle.

As best we can tell, all of the traditions of the human race relied upon the power of these systems of support to protect and acculturate their kids. However, as our world has increased its speed and we have expanded our mobility, we have unintentionally forgotten these systems, and today, we may be experiencing the consequences of our actions.

The youth development theorists have strived to reach within the conventional wisdom of the human experience to quantify “what kids REALLY do need to succeed.” Thinkers and researchers like Erik Erikson (8 stages of psychosocial development) , Alfred Adler (birth order), Urie Bronfrenbrenner (Ecological Model of Development), Emmy Werner (Protective Factors), Michael Rutter (Protective Factors), Norman Garmezy (Protective Factors), David Hawkins and Richard Catalano (Social Development Strategy), Peter Benson (Developmental Assets), Dale Blyth (4H Youth Development), Karen Pittman (Ready by 21), and McNight and Kretzman (Asset Based Community Development) have each measured, surveyed, and refined the supports, attitudes, and behaviors that young people need.

And, while they research, measure, market, and motivate, the world keeps moving more quickly, and the distance between youth and adults increases. It has increased to the point, in some circles, that Judith Harris disregards a nurture assumption and other authors are writing that “parents, families, and community support does not matter.” Instead, they postulate that “friends are the new family.”

To the contrary, the wisdom traditions of our world cry out that “A personal village for every child and youth” DOES MATTER. As a matter of fact, it matters more than ever before.

Protective Factors
While a pool of protective factors have been compiled over the years, each theorist has put their “label” on different lists that have been taken from this pool. You’ll hear of Elements, Conditions, Pillars, Developmental Assets™, Assets,  Virtues, and Supports. And, while each of these labels has research to show its efficacy, the truth is that ALL of these labels show a correlation between their presence in a youth and his/her likelihood of success.

Therefore, Integrative Youth Development sees these protective factors as STRINGS. We use the term strings, to address the concept that most people espouse the belief that “people have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” And, the strings, or “bootstraps”, are what individuals rely upon to pull themselves up.

Emmy Werner breaks Protective Factors into 3 categories - Community Empowerment, Family Environment, and Personality of the Youth. Within each category she lists between 10 and 20 indicators of the category.

The Search Institute calls their list “Developmental Assets™ and offers two domains, external and internal, with four categories within each domain. Their categories are support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, and constructive use of time for the external, and commitment to learning, positive values, social competency, and positive identity with 4-6 indicators within each category.

Many other frameworks use community sectors to categorize their list of protective factors. Their category headings are often individual, family, school, community, and peer group with 5-7 indicators supporting each category.

Integrative Youth Development strives to take the best of the youth development research and focus our efforts on each child or teen, and deliver systemic improvements that could positively effect all of the children and teens. To this end we have two domains - Tangible and Intangible. And, within the tangible strings, we have seven categories of community sectors which can be activated in support of youth. They are: Family Characteristics, Home Environment, School Climate, Neighborhood Norms, Peer Characteristics, Faith Community Climate, and Youth Program Climate.

In IYD we have put together a comprehensive framework that works to support young people from all cultures, and allows all of the programs to work together, to benefit children and youth.

The framework has seven measurable metrics that can show progress in your work with children and youth.

For more information, contact ICAR-US.

In IYD we have put together a comprehensive framework that works to support young people from all cultures, and allows all of the programs to work together, to benefit children and youth.

The framework has seven measurable metrics that can show progress in your work with children and youth.

In IYD we have put together a comprehensive framework that works to support young people from all cultures, and allows all of the programs a shared, common sense, and measurable objective to support children and youth.

The framework has seven measurable metrics that can show progress in your work with children and youth. (See table below.)

• Phactor 1™ - Rule of Five - every young person needs at least five people (anchors) who care about, guide, have high expectations of him/her, within a circle of support.
• Phactor 2™ - Tangible Support (a.k.a. strings or straps) - the conditions, structures, and supports that adults provide for the young person. (His/Her environment.)
• Phactor 3™ - Intangible Support (a.k.a. strings or straps) - the attitudes, values, traditions and beliefs that the young person picks up, or absorbs, from the circle of support.
• Phactor 4™ - Innate Resilience - building up the young person, so they are "big enough" to be supported by the web, and “stick” to the people in the circle.
• Phactor 5™ - Reducing Cuts to the web – attitudes, behaviors, or trauma that interfere and compete with the Tangible and Intangible Supports.
• Phactor 6™ - Supporting the Anchors - supporting the people who anchor the web (the adults who hold the strings.)
• Phactor 7™ - Social Norms - the cultural shifts that blow across a web, causing chaos to the young person, and blowing him/her out of the circle, and off course.

"The wisdom of the elders... has withstood the research test of time.” From the Inupiat and Yupik Eskimo of the Alaskan north, to the Bushman of the Kalahari of Botswana. From the Zapotec Indians of Southcentral Mexico to the Navajo of Northern Arizona … their reply to the assets framework has been the same, “THIS IS OUR STUFF.” A people’s knowledge, a family’s love, and an individual’s action are why asset building is a timeless framework in a time of unprecedented change. Come learn how the assets framework is supported by the traditional stories of indigenous people around the globe. You will learn: How to identify the assets in traditional native stories. How the different definitions of resilience are supported by indigenous stories. How various psychological theories support the indigenous concept of resilience.

Are Protective Factors Taught or Caught? Principles of Integrative Youth Development and Resilience. Over the past 10 years, youth workers and educators have been striving to 1) be strength based in our approach to children and youth, 2) have increasingly focused on increasing the resilience of children and youth, and 3) have used the language of protective factors as a common sense means to measure improvement and motivate all sectors of support to share in the responsibility for raising strong youth. In this workshop we review the research that supports the framework, the political and social ramifications of the work, and provide some new insights into how resilience can be taught and how it can be caught. You will learn: The psychological background to resiliency. The history of the resiliency research. To consider several questions which relate to the field of integrative youth development and resilience.

Moving beyond the Power of One to the Rule of Five. Intentionally creating a personal village for every youth. Jane Howard said, “Some call it a family, others a tribe. I have heard it called a clan, and I have seen it called a village. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, everybody needs one.”   It is nearly impossible to describe community to someone who has never experienced it. True community begins and ends with the individual. It is measured in the bonds, commitments, and supports given to and received from others. Today, the description “community” is being used for such a wide variety of experiences, that it is almost meaningless.  Even though the idea of external and internal supports has been with us since the dawn of human existence. These supports have been called “Habits of the Heart” and it is about time that we begin making them a part of our lives  again. Let’s re-discover our Habits of the Heart. The kids we have, and the world we want. Hurried yet ambitious, unsupported yet resource-rich, misunderstood yet accepted? Who are the students of Generation X, Y, Z, and Me? What are the building blocks needed to prepare this generation for lives within the context of their personal family, local community, national society, and global economy? And, what are the keys school board members can use to ensure that students are given the attitudes and skills to move ahead in an ever-changing world?