Youth Opportunity Toolkit
The Youth Opportunity Toolkit from the Search Institute, supports schools and youth-serving organizations in understanding the importance of youth social capital, reflecting on organizational practices that promote social capital development, and introduces an approach for continuous improvement.
Social capital refers to the resources that arise from a web of relationships that young people can utilize to help them reach their life goals. Social capital can help young people develop the skills to succeed in school, navigate the job search process, and gain experience working in professional settings.
The Toolkit is organized around four key components to support you and your organization in getting started on your pathway to becoming a social capital promoting organization.
- Why Relationships Matter. Learn more about the transformative role of developmental relationships in the lives of young people. When it comes to young people’s success, who they know is often as important as what they know.
- A Web of Relationships. Gain insight into the benefits of social capital and hear how social capital has helped young people reach their life goals. All young people can thrive and reach their full potential when they are supported by a web of meaningful relationships.
- Social Capital Framework. Use our research-based framework to reflect on whether you and your organization have the enabling conditions in place to support young people’s social capital development. Take a brief assessment to better understand where your organization stands today and where to focus on to became a social capital promoting organization.
- Improvement for Impact Approach. Implement our continuous improvement tools to help you make sense of and act on your social capital data. Actionable and insightful social capital data can inform your organization’s progress and impact, we’ve created a four-step approach to making organizational change a reality.