WHEREAS, Society uses the phrase at-risk youth to describe youth in different living situations that lead them toward failure in the educational system, and into the mass incarceration system or low-skilled jobs; and

WHEREAS, At-risk youth is a label to describe children in lower socioeconomic standings, children whose parents have little formal education, and students from undocumented working-class families; and

WHEREAS, At-risk youth is a label that describes the potential number of youth who are predicted to fail, despite never being given a chance to prove otherwise, never being given the same access to resources and guidance as other young people, and never enjoying the privileges and opportunities afforded other young people; and

WHEREAS, When describing how our at-risk children are viewed in the education system, the terminology has shifted from culturally deprived and deficient, which are phrases that were widely used in the 1960s and 1970s, to disadvantaged, which is a term that was used in the 1980s, to the currently popular label at risk; and

WHEREAS, The previous at-risk model was a deficit model that was based on the assumption that if the criteria fit the child, then the child must have some sort of deficit. In contrast, the at-promise model is based on assessing the childs strengths; and

WHEREAS, Labeling youth as at risk often tends to have negative effects on the child and may even be damaging; and

WHEREAS, At-Promise Youth focuses on the raw potential that each individual can access within himself or herself if he or she is treated as if he or she shows promise; and

WHEREAS, At-Promise Youth is a strength-based approach that honors the strengths and gifts innate to youth; and

WHEREAS, At-Promise Youth broadens our perspectives and attempts to focus our attention on some of the details regarding youth and their individual strengths, and reminds us that we all have natural gifts, positive qualities, and potential for goodness. The act of focusing on strengths is different from the cultural norm of focusing on what needs improvement; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby encourages the people of the State of California to recognize the potential and possibilities of our children, instead of focusing on their deficits; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

ACR 197: Children: from at-risk to at-promise.

Assembly Floor

Assembly Standing Committee on Public Safety

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