All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents, 2nd Edition

The measure of a societys health is how well it takes care of the youngest generation. By this standard we fail. But All Kids Are Our Kids offers an approach to unleash the extraordinary power of community when people unite around a widely shared vision of healthy child and adolescent development. All Kids Are Our Kids introduces forty Developmental Assets--building blocks of healthy development that are essential for all youth regardless of their background. The challenge for all segments of the community--families neighbors schools congregations employers youth organizations and more--is to share in the responsibility for taking action to ensure that all kids have what they need to grow up healthy successful and caring. This new edition includes new evidence cites successful cases and makes recommendations for energizing individuals families and community action. Praise for All Kids Are Our Kids "A practical concrete blueprint for helping young people succeed because of supportive communities." --Donald T. Floyd Jr. president and CEO National 4-H Council "For two decades Peter Benson has been Americas most eloquent and persuasive voice for a new positive approach to enhancing the lives of our nations youth. If policy makers practitioners and researchers read only one book about how to act in support of our nations youth then this is it!" --Richard M. Lerner Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and director Institute forApplied Research in Youth Development Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development Tufts University "Peter Benson continues to remind us of how far short of the mark we have fallen in meeting the needs of our youngest generation. But then he provides a gift: a unifying vision that we can all rally around: parents neighbors youth-serving organizations and ultimately whole communities committed to the healthy development of all our kids." --Judy Vredenburgh president and CEO Big Brothers Big Sisters of America "Bensons approach is the best formula we have for building communities to meet the developmental needs of young people. Anyone who is concerned about the future of our society should read this book." --William Damon professor of education Stanford University and director Stanford Center on Adolescence