Indicator: Youth Opportunity for Community Involvement

Priority or Priorities:  ACES/Resiliency
Initiative(s):  Asset building schools and communities
Outcome (s): Children and youth respected, safe and nurtured in their communities

Why This is Important

The involvement of young people in activities that help promote their bonding to their community , and involvement which promotes participation on behalf of a greater civic good, is a goal of many youth development programs. Some research shows that youth who feel respected and part of their community are less likely to participate in risky behaviors. Young people who have many opportunities to improve their community may be more likely to involve themselves in other civic responsibilities (such as voting) as they become adults.

Where We Stand

Less than half, 46% of all the respondents, agree/strongly agree that they are given “lots of chances to help make my town or city a better place to live”. For this 2005 report, 32% were neutral on this statement and 22% disagreed/strongly disagreed with the statement. This appears to be a consistent trend on this indicator; less than half of the high school age youth believe that they have opportunities to make their town or city a better place to live.

On a national survey performed by the Search Institute in 2003, youth in 6th to 12th grade were asked if they were given useful roles in the community. This question corresponds with the Search Institutes’ developmental asset 8, “Youth as Resources.” According to their results, 26% of the youth surveyed experience this asset.

Data Source and Context

This Maine Marks indicator is adapted from the work of the Search Institute (www.search-institute.org) and their research into developmental assets of young people.The developmental assets framework is popular with many who work in the field of youth development. The data source for this indicator is a statewide, random digit dial telephone survey of Maine youth in grades 9 – 12 conducted by Critical Insights, a strategic marketing research firm in Portland, Maine. A total of 402 youth participated in the interviews for this 2005 report; interviews were completed by January 2006. The youth were asked the following question: “Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with the following statement: I’m given lots of chances to help make my town or city a better place to live”. Due to funding limitations, surveys were not conducted in 2003.

NOTE: For all years, only the data in the “all” column is statistically representative of youth in this age group statewide; the gender and grade level breakdowns are provided for descriptive purposes only and are not representative of all Maine youth in this age group.

National data comes from the Search Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors Survey. This 2003 survey reached approximately 150,000 6th to 12th grade youth in 202 communities across the United States. Complete results and explanation can be found at
http://www.search-institute.org/research/assets/assetfreqs.html.