Building Blocks for Raising Healthy and Successful Youth: A Profile of Development Assets of Youth Living in Tirana City, Albania

Abstract

This paper begins by shortly presenting two approaches to helping young people grow up healthy and successfully: 1)
problems’ prevention / reduction approach and 2) strength-based approach; by emphasizing the need to find a balance between
the two. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the strength-based approach by presenting Search Institute’s Development Asset
Framework. This framework identifies 40 elements of young people’s positive growth and development. This section is followed
by an overview of the state of development assets among young people attending public secondary and high schools of Tirana
city, in Albania, by providing an analysis according to eight assets categories (support, empowerment, boundaries and
expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies and positive identity) as
well as according to five context areas (personal, family, school, social and community). The paper concludes by stressing the
power of development assets and the role that everyone may play in building these assets.