Mission, Vision, & Guiding Principles
Learn about Search Institute’s purpose and aspirations through our mission, vision and guiding principles.
Our Mission
To cultivate the strengths, relationships, and opportunities necessary for young people to learn, grow, contribute, and thrive.
Our Vision
A world where the inherent value of every young person is known, nurtured, and activated—so youth and communities thrive together.
Our Guiding Principles
Our work across every initiative is anchored in three core commitments that serve both as our operating foundation and as standards of accountability with our partners:
- Shared Wisdom: We focus on bringing together developmental science, practitioner expertise, lived experience, and community insight to continuously drive learning and improvement.
- Transformative Partnerships: We cultivate long-term, trust-based relationships that unify organizations, systems, and communities around a collective responsibility for youth and community thriving.
- Co-Created Solutions: By designing approaches, tools, and strategies directly alongside youth, families, practitioners, and community members, we ensure our collective work remains culturally responsive, deeply relevant, and sustainably owned by those it serves.
Relational Ecosystems: The Conditions for Thriving
Search Institute's Strategic Direction
What We Do
Search Institute achieves its mission in three primary ways:
Generating knowledge and insight through mixed-methods research.
We conduct and communicate findings from quantitative and qualitative studies to deepen understanding of and reframe critical issues in youth development and education.
Developing and disseminating resources based on our research.
We design and deliver workshops, surveys, and other practical resources that help adults and youth improve the connections they build.
Partnering to improve outcomes
We bring together the knowledge that is generated and the resources that are created through our research to deeply collaborate with organizations to put youth on the path to thriving.
Who We Work With
Search Institute works with youth-serving organizations to help their young people thrive. We partner with organizations like: schools, out-of-school time programs, community coalitions, prevention programs, faith-based organizations, foster care programs, juvenile justice centers, child welfare agencies, and civic organizations, and any other organizations that work directly with young people.
Most of our work takes place in the United States and Canada, but we have conducted successful projects and engaged with youth-serving organizations worldwide.
Search Institute helps young people thrive by supporting youth-serving organizations who carry out this work. While we don't partner directly with individuals unaffiliated with organizations, we do offer research and resources for any caring adult working with young people. Visit the Resources Hub for research-based tools, activities, and measures.