Archive

Family Resilience is a concept that has wide and deep roots, ranging from the development of the concept of individual resilience to the postulates of General and Family Systems Theory.

Phil talked about how systems theory can help us understand how situating resilience-building activities within an understanding of complex dynamic systems can help to identify “leverage points” in aspects such as the rules, goals and power distributions.

Many of our previous Resilience Forums have slides you can download and blogs you can read, some even have films you can watch.

Smart Moves helps students develop resilience to address common anxieties when transitioning from Year 6 to 7. It equips teachers to facilitate evidence-based sessions around building resilience and good mental health.

Ann Hagell and John Coleman have been working with Public Health England and other partners to develop resources to help people working in front line public health to promote young people’s resilience. This means working in the school and community settings.

Over recent months Nick and Ceri have been exploring a range of interventions that will promote resilience in children and young people across the London Borough of Haringey. This work has been developed from 3 different perspectives, all coming together to try and offer a more integrated model for implementation, as well as looking to ensure sustainability.

Gabrielle looked at strategies the school could use to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are vulnerable, including providing a member of staff as a mentor to any child who did not appear to be thriving or who qualified for Pupil Premium funding. Although it is common for schools to offer mentoring, clear expectations and training are often not offered to staff.

Resilient adolescents (aged 13-17) were asked what helped them overcome the problems in their life through interviews and focus groups. The findings indicated that resilience was a process and included steps such as response to risk, insight, letting go and acceptance.

The whole school approach involved recognising the importance and positive impact of relationships and significant others in pupils’ lives – site supervisors, teachers, cooks, sports coaches and senior leaders alike. The participatory approach taken was used with staff and pupils to actively investigate what mechanisms support, or act as barriers to, developing resilience in a special needs school.

Sam Hart, Director of Sussex Prisoners’ Families, reports on a recent research trip to the States, in which she investigated what it means to be ‘trauma-informed.’ She hopes to show how a ‘trauma-informed’ approach can complement a resilience-building approach when working with children, young people and families who have experienced adversity, using examples from families involved with the criminal justice system.

The S2T advocates a balanced approach and draws on an eclectic mix of traditional pathogenic and salutogenic theories. It aims at re-authoring trauma narratives in a safe healing group context, where there is reflection on individual strengths and capacities borne from the struggle to cope with childhood trauma.

One of the activities within HeadStart Newham is ‘Bounce Back Newham’, a resilience behaviour change workbook and online resource based on the principles of the resilience framework. Working with the Young Foundation and young people across the borough we have developed ‘Bounce Back Newham’ as a resource which can be delivered in schools or accessed independently by young people.