"It starts with us" - that was the message of Dr Larry Brendtro, an American researcher, author, and educator at a recent ComVoices Parliamentary Breakfast in the Beehive in Wellington.

Hosted by Maori Party Co-Leader, Hon. Tariana Turia, the event attracted about 70 Parliamentarians, public officials, and representatives from Tangata Whenua, and the community and voluntary sector.

The ComVoices Parliamentary Breakfasts have been run since 2006. Each event is hosted by a different MP, with the aim being to engage politicians from across the political spectrum in both attending and hosting the events.

Tariana Turia introduced Dr Brendtro, saying that any engagement in youth needed to draw on the past, the present and the future to promote strong cultural, emotional and intellectual connections in young people.

"If our minds can receive it and our hearts can know we can achieve it, we can succeed," she said, referring to the strengths-based model of positive youth development that Dr Brendtro co-developed.

The framework established under the banner Reclaiming Youth at Risk, integrates Native American philosophies of child-rearing, the heritage of early pioneers in education and youth work and contemporary resilience research.

Called "The Circle of Courage", it is based on four universal growth needs of all children: belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity; needs that are also included in the key competencies of the New Zealand curriculum. The model has been applied world-wide in schools, treatment settings, and family and youth development programmes.

Dr Brendtro said confronting a climate of violence in our schools and communities required solving new problems with old methods and mindsets and seeing crisis as an opportunity.

"Successful approaches need to go beyond zero tolerance to transform the cultures of disrespect that fuel violence," he said.

"If a crisis is to become teaching opportunities, adults must disengage themselves from angry, adversarial conflicts with youth. Rather than be drawn into tit-for-tat reactions, adults must treat problem behavior as errors in responding rather than purposeful defiance."

Dr Brendtro said creating connections were a key part of that, and referred to the importance of strong engagement from a community's elders, who had the wisdom and time to build the connections young people at risk needed. "There is currently an elder deficit disorder in our communities. We need to resurrect our children with our elders if we are going to look after our young people well," he said.

He sent out a challenge to everyone in the room to consider their own part in building those connections and engage in the myriad of positive encounters that could be created with young people, from the smallest gestures, like a smile in the street, to create a sense of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity.

About Dr Larry Brendtro

Dr Brendtro is a member of the American Psychological Association and holds a federal appointment on the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention chaired by the U.S Attorney General.

He has co-authored 12 books on troubled youth, has over 200 publications and he co-founded the quarterly journal Reclaiming Children and Youth. In 1994 Dr Brendtro established the Black Hills Seminars, an international training institute for reclaiming youth.

He has four decades of experience with troubled children and youth as a teacher, principal, and psychologist, and has served as Professor of Special Education in the area of Behavioral Disorders at the University of Illinois, Ohio State University, and Augustana College.

Dr Larry Brendtro has had considerable first hand experience with youth at risk in his work as a youth worker, teacher and psychologist. More recently his work has concentrated on Reclaiming Youth International, a non-profit organisation that provides research and training for professionals, policy leaders and citizens concerned with youth at risk.

In addition to founding Reclaiming Youth International, Dr Brendtro has taught in the area of behaviour disorders at the University of Illinois, Ohio State University and Augusta College. He is a former president of Starr Commonwealth, an organisation serving youth in Michigan and Ohio and is Dean of their Research Council.