Every Kid in Our Communities of Leeds and Grenville generates positive change for children and their families by bringing together key players from our communities, including those who may not have previously engaged due to perceived agency or professional boundaries.

We provide a neutral forum for our members to focus their considerable expertise and unique perspectives toward the one common goal of ensuring the best possible chances for all kids in Leeds and Grenville.

The best possible chances are built upon the external assets available to kids within their families and their communities.  To this end Every Kid members use the common framework of Developmental Assets to facilitate cooperative efforts.

Our collaborative make-up and approach makes it possible to properly identify and address the critical issues impacting children and youth through meaningful research, thorough analysis, well designed action plans and systematic evaluation.

The Vision of Every Kid is centred on 6 goals that clarify why members choose to work together and that drive them to find ways to effectively do so.  These goals form the glue, the magnetic attractor of common purpose, that brings the group to the stewardship table (Lead Table) and to the Work Groups where action occurs.

Framework:

Every Kid operates from the shared perspective of the framework of Developmental Assets from the Search Institute.   By nurturing the assets of every kid, Every Kid recognizes its stewardship role that embodies an ethic of cooperative planning and optimal use of resources for the benefit of our kids, their families and our communities.

The Developmental Assets Framework

• External Assets: The first 20 Developmental Assets focus on positive experiences that young people receive from the people and institutions in their lives. Four categories of external assets are included:

• Support-Young people need to experience support, care, and love from their families, neighbours, and many others. They need organizations and institutions that provide positive, supportive environments.

• Empowerment-Young people need to be valued by their community and have opportunities to contribute to others. For this to occur, they must be safe and feel secure.

• Boundaries and expectations-Young people need to know what is expected of them and whether activities and behaviours are “in bounds” and “out of bounds.

• Constructive use of time-Young people need constructive, enriching opportunities for growth through creative activities, youth programs.

• Internal Assets: A community’s responsibility for its young people does not end with the provision of external assets. Caring adults must make a similar commitment to nurturing the internal qualities that guide positive choices and foster a sense of confidence, passion, and purpose. Young people need this wisdom to make responsible decisions about the present and future. The framework includes four categories of internal assets:

• Commitment to learning-Young people need to develop a lifelong commitment to education and learning.

• Positive values-Young people need to develop strong values that guide their choices.

• Social competencies-Young people need skills and competencies that equip them to make positive choices, to build relationships, and to succeed in life.

• Positive identity-Young people need a strong sense of their own power, purpose, worth, and promise.

Foci of Collaborative Working:

Every Kid in Our Communities is working towards collaborative public action that will result in measurable change in the root conditions impacting the well being of children and their caregivers.  Focused by Developmental Assets, we spotlight, in our actions, the following interconnected, overlapping strategic areas:

1. Investing in Innovative Programming
: Every Kid invests in innovative programming to test a promising practice, to establish a case for universal access to a needed service, to assess the impact of increased collaborative integrated action and to implement evidence based programs to address demonstrated need.
2. Evaluating Impact and Creating and/or Sharing New Knowledge:  
Every Kid’s research endeavours relate to the development and/or implementation of policies and programs that truly support children and their families by enhancing their Developmental Assets. Knowledge creation and sharing involves priority setting, planning and evaluation. Results often leverage additional investment and work. Every Kid partners work together in sharing research and informing policy.
3. Strengthening the Community’s Foundations
:  Every Kid acts to link existing and to provide shared professional development opportunities for staff in the children’s and youth’s sector, to disseminate new research information on children and youth and on best evidence informed practices, to bring together service providers to establish standards of practice and a common language framed by Developmental Assets.  Every Kid acts to enable our community to become more effective in its responsiveness to issues impacting children and youth.  It seeks to enhance communication between members and across communities and to share knowledge and skill of adults who work with and for children and youth.
4. Engaging the Community in Designing Solutions That Increase Assets for Kids
:  By identifying shared concerns, overlaps and gaps, by bringing collective expertise and resources to the Lead and Work tables, and by addressing social policy barriers impacting children, Every Kid seeks to put into service powerful solutions to kids’ issues.
5. Shifting Thinking:  
Every Kid’s social messaging invites individuals, employers, employee groups and decision-makers to keep children at the forefront of civic engagement and action. Every Kid acts to place children’s issues on top of the public agenda and challenges our communities, our organizations and our citizens to focus on solutions. It measures outcomes in terms the developmental assets our kids require for success.