The America's Rising Stars Process is designed to help today's youth develop their personal leadership skills. Leadership is essential in enabling youth to develop character, confidence, and values that promote the goal of healthy behavior. Research shows a majority of American youth engages in health compromising behavior. In her pioneering book, Adolescents at Risk, Joy Dryfoos concludes that half of all ten to seventeen year olds are at high or moderate risk of undermining their chances for a healthy life because of substance abuse, unsafe sex, teen pregnancy, school failure and delinquency, crime or violence.

More importantly, a recent report from the American Medical Association captures the importance of this goal:
"For the first time in the history of this country, young people are less healthy and less prepared to take their places in society than their parents. Moreover, this is happening at a time when our society is more complex, more challenging, and more competitive than ever before."

In addition, a recent research report, Workforce 2020: Work & Workers of the 21st Century, Dr. Carol D'Amico discovered that employers grouped leadership as one of the essential skills entry-level workers lacked. These skills included strong work ethics, problem solving, and creativity, along with organizational and interpersonal skills. These skills were ranked ahead of writing, math, reading, and job specific skills.

The need for Rising Stars has been supported by the research of Search Institute and their study of forty developmental assets, experiences, opportunities and internal capacities essential for health and success in our complex society.  Click here to learn what these assets are.  Search Institute is an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization located in Minneapolis, Minnesota whose mission is to advance the well being of adolescents and children by generating knowledge and promoting its application. Search Institute and Rising Stars believe if our society would invest more in positive things young people need, then we could expect high yields (in terms of healthier youth) as young people become healthy, contributing members of families, communities, workplaces, and society.

America’s Rising Stars’ proven process enhances attitude (A) development that fosters improved behaviors (B), along with an additional return on investment through prevention and reduction of risk behavior that can be measured by the internal and external assets researched extensively by The Search Institute. Positive change (C) and measurable results for every young person we have the opportunity to serve is our primary goal.

The Promising and Effective Practices Network (PEPNet) is a project of the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) that identifies and promotes criteria of effective practices in youth employment and development. Some of these practices include: helping young people gain skills and background necessary to make good educational and career decisions; providing opportunities for youth to engage in community service; promoting cultural diversity and awareness; and creating participation opportunities for life skills and interpersonal skills development.

The America's Rising Stars' curriculum encompasses these practices. Through the Alumni Association, Rising Stars graduates have additional opportunities to serve their communities and to mentor new Rising Stars participants.

The U.S. Department of Education in their Office of Educational Research and Improvement Fund for Improvement of Education "The Partnerships in Character Education Pilot Project Program" has designated 6 areas for youth leadership development. America's Rising Stars addressed these areas within the text chapters (TC) and "personal" Action Plan (AP) as follows:

Caring - TC: 1, 3, 4, 9-11, 14; AP: Mental, Social, Home & Family, Ethics & Belief

Civic virtue and Citizenship - TC: 1-4, 7, 9-14: AP: Mental, Home & Family, Ethics & Beliefs.

Justice and Fairness - TC: 1-4, 6, 7, 9-11, 13, 14; AP Mental, Ethics & Beliefs

Respect - TC: 1-4, 7, 9, 10, 11-14; AP: Mental, Social, Physical, Home & Family, Ethics & Beliefs.

Responsibility - TC: 1-14; AP: Mental, Social, Physical, Home & Family, Ethics & Beliefs

Trustworthiness - TC: 1-14; AP: Mental, Social, Physical, Home & Family, Ethics & Beliefs

In Conjunction with the Sar Levitan Center for Public Policy Study, the federal government has recognized that short-term training and employment programs have not resulted in long term gains. Therefore, in 2000, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) revised its traditional funding of summer programs and instituted a long-term approach with at least a 30% emphasis on out of school youth. These new program elements within Section 129 of WIA also include:

"(A) tutoring, study skills training, and instruction, leading to completion of secondary school; ...(F) leadership development opportunities, which may include community service and peer-centered activities encouraging responsibility and other positive social behaviors during non-school hours as appropriate; (H) adult mentoring...of not less than 12 months; ...(I) follow-up services for not less than 12 months after the completion." WIA also supports U.S. Department of Education in providing leadership and citizenship development.

America's Rising Stars supports the WIA's focus on balance within each stage of youth development. The entire curriculum focuses on personal leadership with the Action Plan providing opportunities for balanced goal-setting behavior.

The youth population will continue to become more diverse. Influence of youth coming from various geographical areas and ethnic backgrounds will continue to create changes. Recent national trends that include increased violence and lower GPA scores along with other negative behaviors could escalate and continue to affect youth, teachers, families and society. Rising Stars is a process that helps youth develop their ability to make positive life choices based upon sound values and a vision of a successful future. It helps students improve their GPA, improve attendance rates, improve their attitude, believe their dreams can become a reality, and reduce risk behavior.

Rising Stars is a research-based process. It is modeled after an Adult Leadership Development Process that has been used successfully with hundreds of thousands of individuals for more than twenty years.

America's Rising Stars is an innovative and unique inside-out development process that focuses on three critical elements that promote personal leadership, healthy behaviors and the skills employers identify as essential. These elements are:

• Developing positive attitudes
• Developing interpersonal skills
• Developing goal-achievement skills

The development process typically begins by developing positive attitudes among the participants, both about themselves and others, and about the infinite possibilities that exist for them. Attitudes will directly determine in many cases whether a young person...

• Turns a problem into an opportunity or succumbs to it
• Will behave in healthy ways that ensure a successful present & future
• Will benefit from the educational process

Interpersonal skills, when combined with increased knowledge and goal-directed behavior, enhance the probability that each young person will assess the impact of their present behavior on their existing and future success.

The process has been field tested in an urban comprehensive high school, a middle school, a non-public special education program, a church youth club and a community based program for adjudicated youth. Through trial and error, since spring of 1996, invaluable information has been gained on how to structure a Youth Leadership Program and know what essential components are needed to make it a measurable success. (The foundation of this youth leadership process is a successful 20-plus year adult proven leadership process that has positively impacted hundreds of thousands of individuals both internationally and throughout the USA.)

These necessary components include relevancy (taken from the need analysis), Action Planning (goals based on measurable objectives), reinforcement (the Action Plan, the facilitation, and the alumni who share their experiences and help overcome obstacles) and most importantly, repetition (consistent with positive reinforcement from the facilitation to the text and audio).

The Rising Stars Process contains all of these components along with the innovative learning strategies of self-directed learning, where young people take responsibility for their own personal improvement; and constructivism, where facilitation recognizes how to shorten the learning curve; and collaborative/team learning activities that support educational research.

To conclude, developing personal leadership is a critical component to bringing today's youth into society and the workforce as healthy, productive contributors. America's Rising Stars' proven process instills these behaviors along with an additional return on investment through prevention and reduction of risk behavior.