All school staff – teachers, administrators, and counselors, as well as yard supervisors, coaches, bus drivers, custodians, clerical support staff, librarians – have the power to build developmental assets in children and youth. Asset building is a natural fit for any adult in the field of education.

Project Cornerstone’s school staff training and resources focus on specific ways in which staff have the opportunity to build assets with their students every day. To inquire about any of the following training programs or resources, please contact us.

  • Introduction to Asset Building – This presentation introduces participants to Search Institute’s Developmental Asset Framework and their research. The power of assets to prevent children and youth from engaging in risky behavior, as well as the promotion of thriving behaviors, is detailed, in addition to showing the impact on academic achievement and social/emotional health. The presentation also shares how Project Cornerstone utilizes the developmental asset model to support school efforts to infuse asset-building into its culture.
  • 2017 Developmental Assets Survey Results – This presentation gives stakeholders a closer look at their own school’s and district’s most recent results from the Search Institute’s MMW (Me & My World) survey and/or A&B (Attitudes & Behaviors) survey. The intent is to give an analysis of the data to help prompt conversations.
  • Building Assets on the Playground – Unsupervised time on an elementary school playground is “primetime” for negative behaviors to surface between students. Whether serious peer abuse/bullying behavior between students or a single student behaving in inappropriate ways, it is the leading time in any school day for discipline problems to erupt. This training gives yard duty and parent volunteers new strategies to approach this period in the day from an asset-building perspective rather than the more traditional “yard police.” The training is appropriate for any adult with the responsibility of supervising students during their recess time.
  • Parent Engagement Programs – Overview of ABC, Los Dichos, & Preschool/Transitional Kindergarten – This informational training focuses on the Project Cornerstone parent engagement programs that involve parents reading children’s literature and teaching a short lesson in the classroom each month. These short presentations can be woven easily into a regular staff meeting and are usually done by the coordinators of the specific program.
  • Being UPstanders-Bullying Prevention – This presentation raises awareness of the problems of bullying and peer abuse in school settings, as well as the issue of Cyberbullying. Techniques and tools will be shared to help reduce bullying behaviors, as we work with our young people to create a “new normal” of acceptable behavior, using the Developmental Assets framework.
  • Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Asset Building – This presentation for teachers and other school staff explores the core competencies of Social Emotional Learning and how they relate to and support the “Social Competencies” category of the developmental assets. The Social Competencies assets consistently have the lowest scores, of all asset categories, even though they are critical life skills. Included in this presentation will be some highlights from the latest in the field of adolescent brain research, and how it relates to both SEL and asset development.