Summary
This pilot project explored the experience and impact of a six week Asset Building Program (ABP), delivered in Fall 2011 to 6 male youth ages 16-20 in custody at the Calgary Young Offenders Centre (CYOC). This project is not a program evaluation; it is an assessment of the impact of the program on the youths resiliency development (to build positive personal identities, develop competent social skills and promote positive social values) and their lived experiences as program participants. The theoretical framework for this study draws upon positive psychology (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), a non-pathology model that emphasizes the strengths and resources of individuals, as well as a solution-focused therapy orientation, which is future-focused, goaldirected, and focused on solutions rather than on the problems (Berg and de Shazer, 1993).