Going for the Goal

Expert on youth violence encourages Wake County educators to continue building assets for youth

March 9, 2001 - It's not any one thing, but the accumulation of negative factors in a young person's life who lacks caring support and a hopeful outlook that may trigger a violent incident, Cornell University youth violence researcher Dr. James Garbarino told an audience of educators and children's advocates at a Raleigh conference Thursday (March 8).

"There is something for everyone to do," said Garbarino, author of the best-selling book, Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent And How We Can Save Them. "There's no one solution. We must teach ways to reduce violence, detoxify the media, and build character education programs."

Any violence reduction effort must work toward acceptance for children, meeting children's spiritual needs, explained Garbarino, a professor of human development and co-director of Cornell University's Family Life Development Center.

"Kids need acceptance and validation," he said. "The need for acceptance is fundamental. We must build a sense of meaningfulness in life and give children stories about values and caring."

Garbarino spoke at a meeting of educators and child advocates who are part of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students program directed by Dr. Ron Anderson of the Wake County Schools. The conference reviewed the progress of the program funded by a three-year federal grant. Garbarino had praise for the Search Institute and its idea of asset building, one of the tools that has been put to use in Wake County.

"The Search Institute has identified 40 assets. The more of them youth have, the better off youth are going to be," said Garbarino. "There are several interesting points embedded in this. One, it's an accumulation. It's not 'If you have this asset you are fine.' It's the more, the merrier. Two, that of the 40 assets, only about eight of them are specifically in the family. The others are directly in the head of the child, in the child's consciousness, in the neighborhood, in the community, and in the school."

These assets include helping the child have hope in the future and a purpose for life, living in a neighborhood with caring adults, offering the the child routine opportunities to read, participate in religious activities, take part in community service and practice in art, music, or theater, and attending a school with clear boundaries and guidelines.

"These are all things that are not directly, or exclusively, under the control of the family, and boy, is that good news," said Garbarino. "If the only way we could change things was by perfecting families, we could come back in 200 years and have this meeting and still bemoan the fact that we have not perfected all the families. There's a lot more out there beside family."

Garbarino said that it's important for parents to be active in their communities to create an environment in which even a parent who isn't doing very well can still have a reasonably successful child. He said the Search Institute model indicates that communities that help build assets in youth find that children with more assets are less likely to be involved in fighting, carrying a weapon or threatening physical harm and more likely to succeed in school, value diversity, maintain good health and delay gratification.

"We need to be mapping out the environment of kids. Not a 'Do they have this?' because any one 'this' is not the issue," said Garbarino. "It's not child abuse. It's not poverty. It's not racism. It's not any one thing. It's the overwhelming accumulation of those things. We always have to look at the whole package. Someone asks, 'What's the impact of divorce?' Well, it depends. What else is going on in that child's life?"

In his book, Lost Boys, Garbarino discusses the accumulating factors that lead to more youth violence and recent shootings at schools.

He discusses ways to work with violent youth and provides a list of resources communities can develop to help youth.

After his lunchtime speech, Garbarino met with Wake County educators and child advocates encouraging them to continue their efforts. He later talked at Southeast Raleigh High on "What Boys Need," presented by the Wake County Schools, WakeMed, and Wake County Human Services.