Working together boosts sense of community; Connecticut: Old Saybrook Public Schools.

Old Saybrook Public Schools in Old Saybrook, Conn., wanted to help children and other community residents feel needed and safe. More than nine years ago, the school district initiated an asset-building program to accomplish that mission.

In the community of about 9,600 residents, the district wanted the program to address:

* Students who felt a lack of connection with the community and senior citizens who felt disconnected.

* A lack of community activities.

* Too little involvement among residents with police, parks and recreation.

* Valuable educational resources that were being ignored.

* Concerns about student safety and feelings of self-worth.

The program, which led to the district being named the Connecticut state winner in the 2006 National Civic Star Award program, builds support-related assets in the community by helping to establish strong working relationships among various community groups.

An executive committee leads the initiative and includes students, senior citizens, business people, parks and recreation officials, church leaders, police, educators and Youth and Family Service administrators. The group oversees a wide variety of community programs, and its members serve as liaisons to organizations and provide support for programming.

Executive Committee programs include mini grants, a family day, a community talent show, community youth theater, Movies on the Beach, a Memorial Day student art show, the Partners in Art Program, Asset Builder Awards and a community garden. In addition, the panel oversees Enrichment for All after-school programs and a mentoring program that includes seniors, police and students.

For the past three years high school students have organized and run a walk to cure cancer. They have raised money to help forgotten animals and have also nm two blood drives a year. Older students mentor in the middle and elementary schools, help at field and family days, coach younger athletic teams and host a prom for senior citizens. They also teach senior citizens computer skills and work in the intergenerational garden.

Through the mini-grant program, students and community members have combined their talents and skills to build boats, perform theater, make movies, run jazz bands and start and sustain a student-run after-school homework group for disadvantaged children.

Participation by students is encouraged in program design, implementation and decision-making, and intergenerational asset-building experiences are emphasized in many projects. Among the organizations that have implemented projects including youth are the Historical Society, Garden Club and Women's Club. The Rotary and Lions clubs have started youth chapters, and the police department has full-time student resource officers in the middle and high schools. Local churches, meanwhile, have created youth ministries, and senior citizens are serving as volunteer tutors in the schools.

A coordinator has been hired for asset-building activities, youth surveys training for community members in an asset-building model designed to foster healthy communities and healthy youth.

According to the program's administrators, attitudes of many people in the community have changed in a positive way toward each other as a result of the program. Also, students, parents, senior citizens, and business and government leaders have increased their involvement with each other in asset-building initiatives.

Two school-administered surveys to students in grades six through 12 have helped measure the program's success. The first survey was conducted seven years before the second. Survey results indicated that the percentage of students involved in risky behaviors had declined significantly.

Plans for the program include new asset-building activities, securing funding for the youth coordinator's salary and continuing to measure change through student surveys.

For more information, contact Superintendent Sal Pascarella at Old Saybrook Public Schools, 50 Sheffield St., Old Saybrook, Conn. 06475, or call [phone]. The e-mail address is [e-mail].