CADET town meeting: Tools to build a strong community

Editors note: This is the first in a series of articles about CADET’S latest efforts to address challenges facing our communities.
You’ve heard about, and probably attended, the town meetings held by The Community Alcohol and Drug Education Team, or CADET, over the past year. The group took on the issue of drug abuse in our communities with success. No doubt many are wondering how to keep the ball rolling and where to go from here.
     How can we best arm our students and community members with the tools to face not only drug abuse, but also issues from truancy to sex abuse? The answer: Developmental Assets.
Developmental Assets, as identified by an organization called the Search Institute, are the building blocks to maintaining a strong community. The Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. The Search Institute maintains these building blocks of healthy development can help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible. The 40 Developmental Assets include items like support, empowerment, commitment to learning, and positive values. By using these assets every day, young people are empowered.
Caribou Middle School has been making use of Developmental Assets for about two years with noticeable success. Susan White, principal at Caribou Middle School, explained: “It may be a simple as a student feeling that our school is a friendly place. The idea is for students to feel they matter and that they are acknowledged. Now we want to carry this idea forward to the community so that everyone from your favorite little league coach to your church leader speaks the same language. It’s a great opportunity to use these tools to build a strong community.”
Buffy McNeal, district chair, Developmental Asset Team, said Developmental Assets really are common sense ideas to keep in the back of your mind all the time. Ideas like caring about your neighbor, encouraging self-esteem, or helping students feel positive about their future. “So many of us say we have too much on our plates to take on one more project. For us, Developmental Assets are the plate,” McNeal explained. “Now we need to learn how they can make such a difference in our community.”
In an effort to carry Development Assets forward through the school system and encourage the community to become involved, CADET has planned a full day community presentation on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at the Caribou Performing Arts Center. The day will begin at school with a Youth Asset Assembly entitled “Remember Who You Are.” It will focus on how the strengths of every individual can be maximized in every day situations faced by young people.
For community leaders from across Aroostook County, a Community Leaders Asset Workshop will begin at 1:30 p.m. The workshop will be an interactive opportunity for participants to learn the power of the 40 Developmental Assets through lecture, handouts, case study, and shared conversation. A Community Meeting will be held beginning at 6:30 p.m. The sessions will include dynamic speakers Ruby Newell-Legner and Lori Hoftner, whose credentials include work following the tragic shootings at Columbine High School in 1999.
Remember that person from your childhood that made you feel special? Like you could make something successful of your life? Maybe it was a teacher who gave you a funny nickname or maybe your basketball coach. Maybe it was your neighbor. Find out how to make that happen for our young people again, and how it can save our communities. Plan to attend CADET’s Town Meeting on Monday, April 2nd.
For more information about the Search Institute’s Development Assets, visit www.search-institute.org. For more information about CADET’s Town Meeting, contact Susan White, principal at Caribou Middle School at 496-4240, or Buffy McNeal, director of Central Aroostook Child Development Center and district chair of the Developmental Asset Team at 493-4249.