The Search Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping parents, adolescents, schools, and communities work together to promote positive youth development. Draayer noted that Search Institute research shows that instilling assets can create concrete, positive experiences and qualities that will have a positive influence on young people's lives. The theory of the Asset Approach is that certain internal and external assets can help children grow up healthy, caring, and responsible. External assets are specific support systems found in a child's environment. They range from giving children useful roles in the community to parents and other adults modeling positive responsible behavior.
Internal assets help children develop inner strength such as self-control and a strong value system.
These assets include motivation in a child to accomplish goals, the ability to stand up for their beliefs, and the ability to resolve conflict nonviolently. The Search Institute believes that asset building can protect youth from high-risk behavior as well as promote positive behavior. Asset building may be helpful in counteracting the messages children receive from the marketplace that challenge values needed for healthy and safe behavior. For instance, the glamorization of alcohol consumption can lead young people to believe that drinking will make them popular or that alcohol will provide an escape from life's worries, when, on the contrary, it can lead to dependency and loneliness. Accent positive youth by using their efforts as an example for others.