Since 1996, American youth ages 7-24 have qualified for empowered recognition as economic beneficiaries. Their 7-part vision of their own futures inspires grassroots community reinvestment through win-win capacity building.
PART ONE: A COMMUNITY ASSETI’m ____________ an _________________ (Asset Manager – National Board Member – Task Force Member) of Youth Achievers USA Institute. Since 1996, producers for THE ANNUAL YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS have encouraged individualYouth Achievers to believe and achieve a vision of their future. This vision requires identifying, writing and sharing their goals with caring adults. The Youth Achievers corporate motto, “I believe I can achieve, whatever I believe I can achieve,” identifies a common faith-based value for community reinvestment.
Once Upon a Time, Community Reinvestment was revered as federal law. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 regulated financial institutions. Our CEO believes that too many Americans were being left behind in their pursuit of the American dream. YouthUSA sees no greater community asset than a youth with a winner’s spirit. THE ANNUAL YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS seeks to enhance community reinvestment by engaging Whole Villages in developing our youth as community assets. A unique application offers any American youth, age 7 to 24, a chance to win. Whether you are a child, teenager, or a committed adult, your involvement creates winners at www.YouthUSA.net. Here’s how it works.
Our worksheet introduces a youth candidate, age 7-24, and caring adults where they live, learn, work or worship to the YouthUSA application process. There is no application fee. The worksheet should be downloaded, saved, printed and shared for discussion between the youth and a parent or guardian. Worksheets are a tool for engaging a youth’s parents or guardians and other caring adults in an “intentional pro-social approach” for Positive Youth Development. After the worksheet is completed, the information must be entered into an online application. Only completed online applications, with all three parts, will be considered as qualified candidates. The process defines the candidate as a community asset and builds caring adult capacity around each participating youth.
This is a sample worksheet. It introduces the candidate’s written goals as a means for measuring his or her growth as a community asset. Economically, YouthUSA values goal setting in seven key areas as “Money-n-the-Bank.” This is our first step in growing a community asset. No goals, no plan. No plan, no future. No future, no assets. No assets and you have become a liability to your family, community and this nation. Every youth andyoung adult, age 7-24, can choose to be an asset and not a liability. As a community asset, they add value wherever they live, learn, work or worship. Similar to a financial portfolio, if there is no investment in our youth as community assets today, they will either lose value or not gain any “interest” to increase in value. Either is disastrous for a citizen who is becoming an adult and unable or unwilling to contribute to America’s economy!
In today’s financial market, politicians, business owners, investors and even educators are all seeking solutions to grow a stronger economy for America’s future. YouthUSA believes that America’s future can be strengthened by increasing our community assets. Increasing our community assets requires engaging American youth as partners in America’s future. But not without caring adults! In our next segment on THE ANNUAL YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS, we’ll share some experiences about The Whole Village it takes to sustain a community asset.
PART TWO OF THE ANNUAL YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS EXPLORES THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGAGING A WHOLE VILLAGE I’m ____________ an ___________________ (Asset Manager – National Board Member – Task Force Member) of Youth Achievers USA Institute. By now, you know that YouthUSA is looking for community assets to strengthen 21st Century American communities.
We have all heard the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” But, in order to get to “Life is but a dream”, there is a requirement to “row, your boat.” And, rowing requires work! Here you see a team at work. That’s what the Whole Village represents. It is a team of people working together with the same mission… to invest positive values into a young person who is becoming a community asset.
Page two of the Application Worksheetconnects a team of 20 caring adults to a youth applicant. This team or Whole Village represents capacity-building. At the beginning of the 21st century, federal and state government agencies invested grant dollars into community capacity-building programs. To succeed, a demonstration had to engage local citizens, sustain itself with reinvested revenues, and replicate within and beyond the geographic community.
YouthUSA is gaining valuable insight from some programs that failed to make it. We have discovered that tops down government programs seldom reached those with the greatest need. Bottoms-up faith-based programs, although often successful, fail to meet government standards for evaluation and measurable results. It is because of this disparity that YouthUSA started reaching out to churches, start-up ministries, disadvantaged small business owners and community nonprofit groups with a cost-effective approach to capacity-building. We proposed THE ANNUAL YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS as a “win-win” model that demonstrates capacity building BEFORE governmentfunding.
We dusted off an old federal program called ASSETS FOR INDEPENDENCE. Our plan matches some investments from asset funders with investments from a youth applicant’s Whole Village. And, who wouldn’t want to invest in a future teacher, fire fighter, doctor, auto mechanic, lawyer, or U.S. Marine?
A Whole Village of at least 20 caring adults will be a critical component in developing the youth applicant as a community asset. From this group, a trustworthy leader must emerge as the Asset Manager. The Asset Manager must be computer literate, have a working email and unlimited access to high-speed Internet. They should also be willing to dedicate one hour per week and subscribe to an online service that supports the work of the Whole Village.
Another member of the Whole Village serves as the caring adult Mentor. He/she engages the Whole Village in a defined and consistent plan for achieving the youth’s goals in seven areas: Spiritual, Physical, Social, Financial, Educational, Professional and Recreational. Each goal area is led by an Advisor from the Whole Village. Members of the Whole Village elect to work with at least one Advisor to achieve that goal. And, if the asset is to grow, some economic activity must be supported by The Whole Village in their demonstration of grassroots community reinvestment.
Each caring adult in The Whole Village invests $5 toward a grassroots community reinvestment demonstration. The accumulative $100 is deposited into the youth applicant’s savings account at a participating bank or financial institution. This initial $100represents the base financial value of the community asset.
The key to a successful Community Reinvestment model is a PARTICIPATING BANK OR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION. We’ll share more about community reinvestment in the next segment on THE ANNUAL YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS.
PART THREE: MONEY-N-THE BANKI’m ____________ an ___________________ (Asset Manager – National Board Member – Task Force Member) of Youth Achievers USA Institute.The Community Reinvestment Act is a United States federal law that seeks to address discrimination in loans made to individuals and businesses from low and moderate-income neighborhoods.
The Act mandates that all banking institutions that receive Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance be evaluated by Federal banking agencies to determine if the bank offers credit in all communities in which they are chartered to do business.
Between 2001 and 2007, in consultation with a former assistant U.S. Labor Secretary, YouthUSA leaders actively promoted investment opportunities in America’s future. The effort has witnessed the decline of several major financial institution and ripple effects on financial markets worldwide. YouthUSA partnered with the FDIC to offer Money-Smart Financial Literacy as part of a grassroots economic empowerment demonstration. Dr. Arthur Allen Fletcher always said, “If you can read, write, calculate, communicate, think, reason, and use good judgment, you can become an asset to your community.”
Today, FDIC Financial Literacy is the educational cornerstone for our economic development program, Money-n-the-Bank. Money-n-the-Bank puts a dollar value to a YouthUSA Beneficiary as a community asset.
FDIC Money-Smart is a learning objective for every member of the Whole Village. We are reminded by Billionaire Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club, “The more you learn, the more you’ll learn.” YouthUSA encourages every youth, Asset Manager, caring adult Mentor and Whole Village to take advantage of this resource that is provided at no cost to our beneficiaries. At the FDIC Log in screen, Type Your First Name, then your Last, the month you were born, the Day and your organization. REMEMBER!!! For this program, YouthUSA has the alliance with FDIC and is providing you with free access. So, every individual, church or group should list YouthUSA as the organization.
Once you are into the FDIC Money Smart classroom, just follow the onscreen instructions. Remember, if you can read, write, calculate, communicate, think, reason, and use good judgment, you can become an asset to your community. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn!
As a community asset, a youth achiever’s number one job is to believe I can achieve. Partnership with a local community of faith supports spiritual development as one of seven characteristics adopted by a YouthUSA beneficiary.
The compounded time of 20 caring adults in a Whole Village potentially represents a 480 hour day. In disadvantaged or low income communities, many individuals spend a considerable amount of time either looking for jobs, looking for benevolence, looking to get rich quick,or looking for someone else to solve their problems. Their compounded time, collective work, and shared responsibility is an opportunity for incorporation as a community-based nonprofit economic partner.
Training for local community asset development takes place at THE CONFERENCE CENTER. Our virtual workplace, supported by subscribing members, connects the resources of YouthUSA, the United States government and the philanthropic community to your asset manager. Your Asset Manager is the key for building assets where you live, learn, work or worship. Learn more about Money-n-the-Bank Community Reinvestment at www.YouthUSA.net/money.
YouthUSA provides an affordable solution for a youth or young adult to identify and access a Whole Village of 20 caring adults, a Mentor, Asset Manager, 7 specific goals with 7 advisors, corporate resources, community interest, financial literacy, and economic empowerment. This intentional pro-social approach is designed to support Positive Youth Development , which prepares them to be trained for America’s workforce. In providing the Whole Village with access to cost-effective 21st Century learning tools, we have an opportunity to evaluate the needs of citizens where the youth beneficiary lives, learns, works or worships. Contrary to popular pinion, the Digital Divide still exists. Poverty is real for too many families. Illiteracy is alive in America. And, based on the collapse of financial institutions and corporations, financial literacy is critical in have-not, as well as have, communities. YouthUSA invites you to join us in this war that is destroying our children, families, communities and America’s national security.