Success at Project Cornerstone

Project Cornerstone’s vision is that a critical mass of asset builders will surround all children and youth throughout Santa Clara Valley so that asset building becomes a way of life supported by asset-building programs, public policy and media. Following are Cornerstone’s high-level results in promoting the assets approach to impact “the 3 P’s”: policy, programs, personal behavior:

Policy Results:

Public Sector:

• The FIRST 5 Santa Clara County (SCC) Commission has adopted the developmental assets to support and guide its work.
• The Santa Clara County (SCC) Board of Supervisors and 3 City Councils (San Jose, Morgan Hill, Mountain View) have adopted the assets approach as a guiding framework for child and youth-related policies and programs.
• The San Jose Youth Commission has adopted the assets approach and prioritized 3 assets to guide their work.
• San Jose Unified School District has adopted the assets approach by engaging staff, student and teachers in promoting caring school climates and using annual school climate data as part of principals’ performance evaluations.
• The Morgan Hill Unified School District Board passed a resolution adopting the developmental assets approach.
• City of San Jose’s Healthy Neighborhood Venture Fund, Santa Clara County (SCC) Social Services and San Jose BEST incorporated the assets approach into their allocation and evaluation processes.
• Developmental assets, Project Cornerstone and our survey results have been included in numerous reports and recommendations that are important to guiding policy making: Alternative Schools Collaborative’s report to the Juvenile Detention Reform Steering Committee and Santa Clara County (SCC) Office of Education, April 2004; CCPA’s report to the Juvenile Justice Planning Committee, Feb 2004; CCPA’s Juvenile Justice Program Evaluation, Feb 2003; Kids in Common’s Santa Clara County (SCC) Children’s Report, Fall 2002; Community Benefits Coalition’s 2001 Community Assessment of Health and Quality of Life in Santa Clara County.

Private Sector:

• Cisco Systems Foundation, Intel Corporation and The Health Trust incorporated the assets approach into their allocation and evaluation processes.
• The Health Trust and other partner organizations have updated their policies and practices to include young people as members of their boards of directors.

Program Results:
Programs in Corporations, Public Agencies, Community Organizations and Faith Communities:

• Agilent Technologies and Adobe Systems and AMD have shared the assets approach with schools and community organizations they funds.
• Agilent and Intel have offered developmental assets training as a resource to their employees.
• 8 city departments have embraced the assets approach and integrated it into their policies, programs/operations, evaluations and/or resource allocation processes. (San Jose Police & Parks, Rec and Neighborhood Services; Mountain View City
  Manager’s Office, Recreation & Library; Morgan Hill City Manager’s Office; Milpitas Child Care; Palo Alto Recreation)
• 3 county departments have embraced the assets approach and integrate it into their policies, programs/operations, evaluations and/or resource allocation processes. (Santa Clara County (SCC) Dept of Alcohol & Drug Services (DADS); Santa Clara County (SCC) Family & Children’s Mental Health; Juvenile Probation)
• Each year Project Cornerstone provides developmental assets training for approximately 750 staff, board members and/or volunteers from over 30 organizations serving thousands of children, youth and families.
• In 2004 Project Cornerstone has provided training for nearly 100 representatives from diverse faith communities including Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Protestant community leaders.

Education:

• 53 elementary, middle and high schools have student, parent and/or staff leadership teams implementing asset-building action plans to promote safe, caring school climates and reduce bullying/peer abuse.
• 50 parent volunteers have become trained facilitators leading “Taking Asset Building Personally” Study Groups with over 200 other parents this school year.
• The Morgan Hill Charter School has embraced the assets approach to guide staff development, curriculum planning, parent involvement and student leadership in their new school.
• One Title I elementary school had its API score go over 800, improved scores on all sub-tests of the CAT-9 and 50% drop in behavioral referrals to the principal after partnering with Cornerstone through student leadership activities for one year.
• Referrals for behavior problems at a partner middle school dropped by nearly 99% in just 3 months for students who became tutors for younger children. These 22 students were failing academically and had 257 referrals from Sept through March but only 1 referral from April through June, usually a time of increased referrals. The students and their teachers reported improvements in their motivation, confidence and effort in their school work.
• Another middle school experienced a 12% increase in caring school climate and consistent decreases in high-risk behaviors due to their asset building efforts over 2 school years.

Program/Personal Behavior Results:
Education:

• 90% of students reported that they speak up more often if they see people doing/saying things that could hurt others, and 92% said they share their ideas/take action more to help make their school a place where ALL students are accepted and respected.
• 85-90% of students reported improved skills in planning and decision making and team work especially with those who are different from themselves.
• 89% of students feel their schools are safer for all students since they began implementing their asset-building action plans.
• 81-100% of parents reported changed behaviors in their interactions and communication with their own children and other youth at their kids’ schools and in the community which strengthened their relationships and provided youth with more clear boundaries and expectations and greater support and empowerment.
• 100% of teachers reported taking time to intentionally build relationships with their students.
• 94% reported incorporating asset-building activities and resources into their lesson plans.
• 76% of teachers reported creating more leadership opportunities for students in their classrooms and actively supporting student-led efforts to reduce bullying.

These results in policies, programs and personal behavior demonstrate the important impacts Project Cornerstone efforts are having on both individuals and organizations. These positive changes are being multiplied exponentially through the actions of the community leaders and partner organizations leading our growing movement to build assets for all children and youth throughout Santa Clara County.

Share a story about how you have built assets.