All youth can thrive

We believe that all young people have the capacity to thrive.

We believe that it is more useful to focus on and support the development of young peoples' strengths, purpose, and capacities than it is to focus on their deficits. We seek frameworks that empower families and other caregivers as they face the many challenges of raising responsible youth. Knowing that "what gets measured gets done," we are interested in developing practical methodologies for tracking what really matters when it comes to helping youth to thrive.

Environments that promote thriving

We believe that youth thrive best when they are raised in environments that:

• love them;
  
  
• provide them with safe, healthy, enriching environments;
  
  
• raise them with clear, consistent, high expectations;
  
  
• challenge them to exercise their unique competencies;
  
  
• make available to them multiple opportunities to develop the physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of their lives;
  
  
• help them become generous stewards of their lives; and
  
  
• support them with structures of meaning oriented towards goodness, grace, and God.

The best thriving conditions for kids are healthy, happy family environments that are supported by strong community and social networks. We believe in strengthening and supporting families and their support networks whenever possible. We believe in advocating for healthy systems at all levels, but our focus is on individual youth and the families, mentors, teachers, coaches, and communities whose everyday actions aid the kids they are called to love and care for.

Our Set of Thriving Indicators^TM

Over the last five years, Thrive Foundation has supported the efforts of leading social scientists to define and identify indicators of thriving in young people. Through this process, Thrive has uncovered many excellent indicator-sets designed by both researchers and practitioners. After having studied these thriving concepts and indicators in depth, Thrive Foundation has identified, internally, an initial set of thriving indicators^TM, which we believe to be true for the diverse youth of our nation and world. We seek to help young people to be:

• Love of Learning
  
  
• Purpose
  
  
• Good Relationships
  
  
• Emotional Well-Being
  
  
• Life Skills
  
  
• Serving Others
  
  
• Moral Courage
  
  
• Caring For Self
  
  
• Suffering Wisely
  
  
• Joy
  
  
• Spiritual Growth
  
  
• Physical Heath