Building Systems

Practical Resources for Community Change

Developed by the University of Kansas and collaborating organizations, the Community Tool Box is a free online resource for individuals and organizations working to strengthen communities.

It provides practical guidance on community assessment, planning, leadership, advocacy, program implementation, and evaluation.

We value the Community Tool Box because it helps connect good intentions with practical methods for organizing people, identifying needs, developing strategies, and creating meaningful community change.

Its resources complement our commitment to developing people, delivering services, and building sustainable organizational systems.

The vision behind the Community Tool Box is that people — locally and globally — are better prepared to work together to change conditions that affect their lives. Our mission is to promote community health and development by connecting people, ideas, and resources.

 Learn more about the Community Tool Box as team member Christina Holt delivers an address to St. Louis community members.  

 Visit THE COMMUNITY TOOL BOX Website 

 The Active-Participatory Approach provides a practical framework for creating environments where young people feel safe, supported, engaged, and capable of contributing. Developed by the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality, it positions participants as active partners in their learning and development.

The framework rests on four principles: promote safety, provide positive supports, create opportunities to learn, and create opportunities to lead. Together, these principles guide how adults build relationships, structure activities, respond to challenges, and support increasing independence.

Its Youth Work Methods translate these principles into everyday practices. Methods include Structure and Clear Limits, Active Learning, Ask–Listen–Encourage, Reframing Conflict, Building Community, Cooperative Learning, Homework Help, Planning and Reflection, and Youth Voice. Adults use these practices to establish expectations, encourage curiosity, strengthen cooperation, and help participants learn through experience.

Within Raising Royalty, this approach guides how we deliver Student Venture, chess, and workshops. Participants practice skills, make meaningful choices, discuss their thinking, reflect on results, and gradually assume greater responsibility. Facilitators provide guidance while creating room for participant initiative.

The approach also supports continuous improvement through observation, participant feedback, and reflection. It helps us examine both what participants are learning and how their experiences support belonging, confidence, growth, and leadership.

The Search Institute created this framework as a set of 40 positive, research-based experiences and qualities. These building blocks help young people grow into caring, responsible, and productive adults. The list is split equally into two main groups: 

• External Assets (20 items): Focus on relationships and opportunities provided by families, schools, neighborhoods, and communities. They include four categories:
  • Support (e.g., family support, positive communication)
  • Empowerment (e.g., community values youth, safety)
  • Boundaries & Expectations (e.g., family boundaries, school limits)
  • Constructive Use of Time (e.g., creative activities, youth programs) 
• Internal Assets (20 items): Focus on internal social-emotional strengths, self-perceptions, and values. They include four categories:
  • Commitment to Learning (e.g., achievement motivation, reading for pleasure)
  • Positive Values (e.g., caring, integrity, responsibility)
  • Social Competencies (e.g., planning and decision making, interpersonal competence)
  • Positive Identity (e.g., personal power, positive view of personal future) 

https://youtu.be/TqzUHcW58Us?si=af46wSrdC_KqkMhM

 Developmental relationships are close connections through which young people discover who they are, cultivate abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to engage with and contribute to the world around them. However, too few young people are experiencing the power of developmental relationships. We know that one in five young people report no developmental relationships in their lives at all; another 20% have only one. That needs to change. 

We believe that relationships are developmental when they help young people.

• Discover who they are.
• Develop abilities to shape their own lives.
• Learn how to engage and contribute to the world around them.

The framework identifies five elements—with 20 specific actions—that make up developmental relationships. When young people experience these relationships in their families, schools, programs, and communities, they are more likely to be resilient in the face of challenges and grow up thriving.

 Express Care

Show me that I matter to you.

 Challenge Growth

Push me to keep getting better.

 Provide Support

Help me complete tasks and achieve goals.

 Share Power

Treat me with respect and give me a say.

 Expand Possibilities

Connect me with people and places that broaden my world.

 Search Institute Developmental Relationships Framework