Annual event promoted 41 Developmental Assets
Published in the April 29 – May 12, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
From left, Cecelia Ponzini with the Edward “Boss” Prado Foundation, Dori Prado, with Living Above the Influence, and Armando Banuelos. a members of the Youth Action Council, listen as Mayor Steve Tate surprises Prado with the 2015 Morgan Hill Values Youth Fair Community Asset Champion Award at the Youth Fair. Photo by Marty Cheek
Young people, parents and community leaders met together under blue skies Saturday April 18 for the second annual Morgan Hill Values Youth Fair where they learned ways to unite the community for the success of local youth.
Held at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center and the accompanying Downtown Amphitheater grounds, the fair brought in local young people, such as those involved with the Youth Action Council, and various organizations dedicated to helping young people succeed.
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate said that the event had its origin as part of a YMCA program called Project Cornerstone which advocates 41 “developmental assets” to help young people enhance their lives. One of the assets is “Community Values Youth” which received the lowest grade in Santa Clara County in a survey conducted a few years ago, Tate said. To remedy this perception by youth, the city of Morgan Hill worked with various organizations to put the fair together.
“That is our major thrust — to get that asset to be better adopted by all the youth in the Morgan Hill community because Morgan Hill truly does value youth,” he said. “We’ve demonstrated it over and over again through our schools and our recreation programs. In everything we do, we value youth and we want to make sure that youth feel valued.”
Among the organizations that were involved in the youth fair were: The Kings Lounge, South County Youth Task Force, the Morgan Hill Police Explorer Post 811, the Foothill Community Health Center, Shared Hope International, Santa Clara County Public Health, Healthier Kids Foundation, Community Solutions, city of Morgan H ill Splash Aquatics, and the Morgan Hill Unified School District.
“The fair itself promotes all of the now 41 developmental assets and just gets everyone thinking in different ways on how to help kids build their assets — all of them,” Tate said. “We have all of these community-based organizations here that have booths and they are sharing how they can specifically help in the community to build assets either through the parents or the schools.”
Morgan Hill City Manager Steve Rymer said that the fair encourages adults to be involved in helping young people succeed.
“This event, as the mayor said, is really a testament that what Morgan Hill is all about, what this region is all about,” he said. “And when we find ways to make this community better, to make ourselves better, we seize it.”
Jonny Gonzalez, a 14-year-old San Benito High School student, was at the fair to help his father Saul Gonzalez who works with nonprofit organization Community Solutions to encourage young people to stay out of gangs. Young people can learn from the Morgan Hill Values Youth Fair that they have other options than joining gangs, Jonny said.
“I think the fair gives them a place to go and they can learn its way better than to get involved with gangs and things,” he said. “It gives them a secure place. They don’t have to be in gangs or things like that. They have a place to go and they learn where they could go.”
To learn more about Project Cornerstone and the 41 Developmental Assets, visit www.projectcornerstone.org/html/developmentalassets.html.
