Search Institute is a nonprofit organization with a sixty-plus-year history of collaboration with partners to conduct and apply research that promotes positive youth development and advances equity. The organization’s tools build connections that help all young people learn and grow.
Search Institute has a long history of advancing issues important to young people and evolving to serve diverse populations. Their research is scientifically rigorous and focused on building strong developmental relationships. The Search Institute’s first priority is to work with young people from marginalized communities to advance equity.
Search Institute believes in positive youth development and that understanding systems of access, opportunity, justice, and power is necessary to eliminate barriers. The Institute strives to embrace diverse perspectives, experiences, ways of learning, and forms of wisdom.
In the past decade, Search Institute research and practice has focused on the developmental relationships framework, which identifies five elements and 20 actions that make relationships strong for young people.