Faith communities—including churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other places of worship—have tremendous potential for building assets and nurturing the healthy development of young people. Search Institute seeks to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of the faith community to contribute to young people’s growth in body, mind, and spirit.
Tools for Asset Building in Faith Communities
- An Introduction to Asset Building in Congregations (PDF)
- Tips, tools, and ideas
- Research on religion from Search Institute
- Links to other useful organizations and resources
- Should participation in a faith community be a Developmental Asset? A frequently asked question from Search Institute that addresses concerns about whether it is appropriate to highlight faith community participation as an asset, particularly in schools and other settings that must be diligent about the separation of church and state.
- Toolkit for Integrating Assets into Your Congregation
Additional Resources
- Building Assets in Congregations: A Practical Guide for Helping Youth Grow Up Healthy
- Building Assets, Strengthening Faith: An Intergenerational Survey for Congregations
- Transforming Work with Children, Youth, and Families: A Training for Congregational Leaders
- Electronic newsletter from Search Institute’s Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
- Tapping the Potential: Discovering Congregations’ Role in Building Assets in Youth, a PDF download
- Additional Resources for Congregations from Search Institute’s catalog
Current and Recent Projects
- The Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence —A global initiative of Search Institute to deepen understanding of this essential dimension of human development. Supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
- Inspired to Serve: Youth-Led Interfaith Action —A pilot project to build the capacity of faith communities to engage in interfaith service-learning. Collaboration with Interfaith Youth Core and supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service through its Learn and Serve America community-based organization grants program.
- Is There Common Ground? An Exploratory Study of the Interests and Needs of Community-Based and Faith-Based Youth Workers —A collaborative project with the National Collaboration for Youth, with support of Lilly Endowment.
