You may have heard the phrase, “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” Social capital refers to the web of relationships that provide young people with resources and opportunities to help them reach their education, career, and life goals.

Social capital can help young people develop the skills to succeed in school, navigate the job search process, and increase access to resources and opportunities for youth to overcome challenges and explore new possibilities for their futures.

Mentoring Relationships 

When mentoring relationships are characterized by the five elements of a developmental relationship, they are primed to facilitate social capital development by serving as a bridge to connections and resources, enhancing access to community resources, and strengthening youth’s confidence as they work toward their future. Learn more about positioning mentors as social capital builders.

Near Peer Relationships

Near peers are slightly older and/or more experienced peers who typically serve in mentorship and/or coaching roles. Near peers may serve as more proximal role models than educators or other adult practitioners and often share a similar identity and/or life experience as the young people they support. It is possible that due to a similar age and life experiences, and a smaller power differential, youth may feel a greater sense of comfort and safety going to a near peer for support.

The Social Capital Framework

Informed by a comprehensive review of how youth-serving programs support young people’s social capital development, Search Institute created the Social Capital Framework. This framework is designed to support schools and youth-serving organizations to consider their role in supporting young people’s social capital development.

Supporting youth in strengthening and leveraging their social capital in pursuit of their goals requires an intentional and inclusive focus on relationships that is fully integrated into what an organization and school does on a daily basis. When schools and organizations do this well, they are social capital promoting organizations.

The Value of Social Capital: A Lever for Advancing Equity

The benefits of social capital are well researched, with evidence showing that young people who experience higher levels of social capital including stronger and more diverse networks, also tend to report:

• A greater sense of purpose and confidence

• Increased progress toward education and career goals

• Higher educational attainment

• Stronger work readiness skills

• More opportunities for career advancement and promotion

Social capital can open doors to academic, economic, and career success. Yet, deep-seated social injustices and inequities within our education and employment systems create systemic barriers for many young people as they work towards their life goals, especially for young people from marginalized groups or communities.

Equity occurs when all young people have what they need to thrive. Therefore, it is essential that all young people are supported in building a web of relationships that provide access to resources and opportunities. In order to make this vision a reality, schools and youth-serving organizations can play an impactful role by promoting understanding, building partnerships with families and communities, examining biases, and addressing issues of racism and classism to ensure that all young people feel heard, valued, and safe to be their authentic selves.

As a result, the web of supportive relationships that emerges can promote high-quality educational and employment opportunities and outcomes for all young people regardless of their racial/ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other intersecting identities.

Measuring Social Capital

We believe that schools and youth-serving organizations are well positioned to equip youth and young adults with the connections, knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to thrive and reach their full potential. Yet, many organizations do not assess their ability to build quality relationships and equitable social capital.

One of the best ways to center social capital in your organization’s improvement efforts is to measure it. This way, you can demonstrate success and see where to make improvements in order to support the young people in your school or program.

The Social Capital Survey

Search Institute’s Social Capital Survey is designed to capture actionable and meaningful data on young people’s web of supportive relationships and the resources they provide. You can customize the survey and select your measures, which are organized into four key sections:

• Relationship-Rich Climate. Includes measures that assess practitioners and young people’s perspectives on the organization’s relational climate.

• Social Capital. Includes measures that assess the strength of young people’s relationships with multiple relational targets (e.g., mentors, educators, peers, family members), as well as the strength and diversity of a young person’s social network.

• Mindsets and Skills for Social Capital Growth. Includes measures that assess young people’s mindsets and skills to successfully activate and mobilize relationships and resources in pursuit of their goals including relationship-building skills, networking skills among others.

• Progress Towards Education and Career Outcomes. Includes measures that assess young people’s progress towards reaching their education and/or career goals.

Connecting Frameworks

Search Institute frameworks and core domains of research can complement each other. They all work together to support positive youth development but offer different entry points for getting there. Below we highlight some of these key frameworks and concepts and how they can further support young people’s social capital and your path toward becoming a social capital promoting organization.

Sparks. Sparks are young people’s deep interests, passions, and talents. Young people do not develop their sparks in isolation. Rather, relationships play a significant role in helping youth hone their sparks. Youth can thrive when their sparks are supported by a web of relationships that can connect them to valuable opportunities that further nurture and allow for deeper exploration of their sparks.

Developmental Relationships Framework. Developmental relationships are close connections through which young people discover who they are, gain abilities to shape their own lives, and learn how to interact with and contribute to the world around them.

When youth have not one, but a web of developmental relationships, they are more likely to grow, learn, and develop social-emotional skills and resilience in the face of obstacles. These transformative relationships are foundational to supporting young people in building, strengthening, and activating their social capital.

Developmental Assets Framework. All young people have strengths. Understanding young people’s internal and external assets can help us understand the intersection of multiple factors that can influence a young person’s pathway toward life goals. A web of supportive relationships can empower young people to recognize and tap the strengths they and their community already have as they pursue life goals.

Visit the Resources Hub to access free resources that support young people in building and mobilizing their web of support. You play a critical role in providing youth with the resources and opportunities they need to reach their education, career and life goals.