The Partnership has two ongoing initiatives that are both designed to systematically measure the well-being of our children and youth:

• Through periodic surveys of youth, the Partnership is gathering a variety of information from middle and high school students attending the Arlington Public Schools.
• The Community Report Card on the Status of Children, Youth, and Families in Arlington Virginia is a compilation of a broad and up to date set of statistics on the well being of young people and their families in our community.

Both public and private non-profit agencies working on behalf of children and families benefit greatly from this rich set of data on Arlington youth - in designing and evaluating services and in leveraging support for additional services. Individuals will also find the data useful for understanding the needs of young people, whose lives they touch.

Youth Surveys
The Partnership has selected two surveys to monitor various aspects of the lives of our older youth and teenagers. While there is some overlap between the surveys, each survey provides important information not available from any other sources.

• The Profiles of Student Life (Assets) Survey, developed by Search Institute, measures the levels of assets experienced by Arlington youth. It also asks about selected risk behaviors and family background. The survey (known formally as the Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors Survey) contains 156 questions. These questions ask about the 40 different assets and five "deficits" that interfere with healthy development. To see how assets and deficits are affecting youth, other questions ask about thriving behaviors (such as school success and delaying gratification) and risk behaviors (such as drinking alcohol and getting into fights).
• The CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) measures what risks interfere with successful outcomes for youth. This is our only source of detailed data on when young people begin experimenting with alcohol, cigarettes, illegal drugs, and sexual activity. It also gives us data on positive lifestyle choices such as healthy eating and exercise.

The two surveys were administered for the first time in June 2001. The results for both surveys can be found in The World According to Our Kids. Each survey will be administered every three years beginning with the Assets Survey in 2003 and the YRBS in 2004.  Findings from the Assets Survey will be published in a  report entitled Listening to Young People. Findings from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey will be published in a report entitled Taking Some Chances.

Community Report Card
The Report Card is the Partnership's response to an important challenge that the County and School Boards set for the group when it was created: "to review and disseminate data... on a continual basis on the status of children, youth, and families in Arlington County."

The information on children and youth is found in a series of 80 indicators that together provide a broad and objective statistical portrait of our youth. These indicators are organized into four areas:

• Starting Health, Staying Healthy
• Stable and Secure Families
• Educational Readiness and Success
• A Safe, Supportive Community

We plan to update this Report Card about every 3 years. The next Report Card will be enhanced in two ways. It will include an expanded list of indicators. And it will identify specific, community-developed goals for selected indicators in each area. Community members interested in working on the development of those goals should contact Anne Vor der Bruegge, Partnership Coordinator, at 703-228-1667.