On this page you will find articles and links to a variety of free mental health and resilience building resources, written, co-produced and shared by the Boingboing, Resilience Revolution and CRSJ community. Our resources are aimed at young people, parents and carers, practitioners, school staff, academics and people with lived experience. Anyone can access these resources for free, but please clearly acknowledge Boingboing in anything that you draw on in your own work in line with the permissions granted by our Creative Commons Licence, and add links to our website so that users can access the detailed rationale and processes applied to using our tools.
Unless otherwise specified all our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This means you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license and indicate if changes were made. If you do adapt or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Find out more..
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Our Academic Publications
This page presents an archive of selected published works from the Boingboing, Resilience Revolution and CRSJ community. This includes key academic papers, submissions of evidence and a few books relevant to the Boingboing approach to resilience.
Living online: The long term impact on wellbeing – Submission of evidence
In this submission to The House of Lords a bunch of us with different experiences shared our thoughts around how individuals and groups can better access online environments. We suggested the government may potentially help people access the digital world by improving digital inclusivity, accessibility, and data accountability.
Policy/practice impact enquiries and submissions of evidence
Find out more about some of our research in this selection of policy/practice impact enquiries and submissions of evidence focusing on the impacts of policies on young people around the world, people with disabilities, school children and people with experience of mental health issues.
The Economic Impact of Covid-19 on Young People – Submission of evidence
In this submission we outline and discuss the economic impact of Covid-19 on young people in Blackpool and provide recommendations for immediate and long-term interventions.
Disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities: Follow up
In a follow up to our previous submission, we draw on our collective organisational and personal experiences, relating them to policy and practices associated with COVID-19, disabilities and equalities more generally.
The Revolution Researchers Guide to Co-Producing Research
In this guide the Revolution Researchers use their experience working as part of the Resilience Revolution to share valuable guidance and insight aimed at supporting those who wish to involve young people co-productively in research.
Fostering academic resilience a brief review of the evidence base
It is very clear that poor school outcomes can have catastrophic long-term consequences, and there is growing recognition that schools should address ALL pupils’ needs. This brief review of the evidence explores what is meant by the term resilience and gives an overview of what schools can do to foster it in their pupils.
The use of imagination in professional education to enable learning about disadvantaged clients
In this paper we propose that creative methods of learning such as developing the use of imagination may have more direct application in bringing into the public domain previous implicit learning experiences. From the findings of this research, we created a learning model which can be used by lecturers or practice educators either in the campus or practice settings.
Uniting Resilience Research and Practice With an Inequalities Approach
This article outlines and provides examples from an approach that we are taking in our research and practice, which we have called Boingboing resilience. We argue that it is possible to bring resilience research and practice together with a social justice approach, giving equal and simultaneous attention to individuals and to the wider system.
Transitions into work for young people with complex needs: a systematic review
The main objectives of this review were to explore current practices, identify factors affecting and strategies used to improve employability. Findings suggest that collaborative strategies covering training, work practices, therapeutic support and creating appropriate work environments, with active involvement of young people, are key in supporting young people with complex needs into employment.
Learning from the Resilience Playtest: increasing engagement in resilience promoting games
This article considers the co-design, co-production and evaluation of resilience-focused educational games developed by and for young people with complex needs. Using the development of these games and the results of the evaluation as a case study, it addresses key debates surrounding participatory design within the context of social inequalities.
Evaluating resilience-based programs for schools using a systematic consultative review
The aim of this paper is to explain how and why school-based resilience approaches for young people aged 12-18 do (or do not) work in particular contexts, holding in mind the parents and practitioners who engage with young people on a daily basis, and whom we consulted in the empirical element of our work, as our audience.
United we stand Film: Youth perspectives on developing resilience to drought in South Africa
United we stand is a policy briefing paper produced by all the team members involved in the co-productive research project led by Professor Angie Hart on Youth perspectives on developing resilience to drought in South Africa.
Creative activism during a pandemic: Creating zines focused on changing the odds
Throw together Fashion Communication students, a CRSJ PhD student, youth and adult co-leaders from the Resilience Revolution in Blackpool, craft materials, social justice inspiring publications and…. oh yeah, a Global Pandemic, and what do you get?
Bounce Forward – Teacher Pack 2019
In this 10-week programme, co-developed by Lancashire Mind, Blackpool HeadStart and Boingboing, pupils, their friends, family and wider school community can use the Resilience Framework to learn about resilience and try out practical actions to promote resilience building.
Top Tips for enhancing a resilient climate in school during the crisis
Schools and colleges need to create systems which are flexible and responsive to changing guidance and meet the need of everyone in the community. The crisis has demonstrated schools’ central role in the community as well as the rich depth of education they provide including and beyond the curriculum.
Achieving a resilient return to school during Covid-19 blog
Many of our readers will be thinking about how to ensure that children return to a resilient school environment this summer. A resilient climate in school comes from involvement of everyone in the community.
Tips for school staff resilience during Covid-19
We provide some tips for school staff to support your resilience during Covid-19, including compassion, kindness, asking for help and some evidence-based suggestions from the Resilience Framework.
The Resilience Framework and Covid-19
Inside this leaflet for Blackpool residents are two versions of our Resilience Framework. One created by young people for young people, and the Family Version – designed to be used by whole family groups or adults.
Top tips for making Resilient Moves when computer gaming
Youth and adult collaborators from the Resilience Revolution have produced this guide to looking after your mental health during coronavirus containing their top tips for making Resilient Moves when computer gaming
Disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities
We outline and discuss how people with disabilities in the UK are likely to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and the UK government’s response to it. We also make recommendations for immediate and long-term interventions.
Highfurlong co-produced guide to working with young people
As part of the Resilience Revolution, Highfurlong’s pupil Resilience Committee have co-produced this resource for working with young people, so that people can learn from their lived experience and expertise.
Same Pay for the Same Day campaign
The Same Pay for the Same Day campaign is part of the Resilience Revolution, and aims to raise awareness of the difference in wages that young people earn in their workplace compared with other colleagues, simply based on their age.
Getting your head around conferences – Conference guide
We know that going to a conference can be intimidating. Why should you go? What are they for? What do you do there? In this guide to getting your head around conferences, we hope to answer these questions and provide tips to help you prepare yourself as best as possible.
Building resilience through collaborative community arts practice
Researchers and Project Partners: Hannah Macpherson, Angie Hart, Becky Heaver, Sue Winter, Sam Taylor, BoingBoing,Art in Mind, Amaze, The International Centre of Art for Social Change.
Mobilising Knowledge in Community-University Partnerships
Angie Hart, Ceri Davies, Kim Aumann, Etienne Wenger, Kay Aranda, Becky Heaver & David Wolff (2013): Mobilising knowledge in community-university partnerships: whatdoes a community of practice approach contribute?, Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, DOI:10.1080/21582041.2013.767470
Bounce Forward: A School-Based Prevention Programme for Building Resilience
In the current study, we longitudinally examined a range of protective factors, which are relevant to young people’s resilience, as well as their mental health outcomes at three time points: before they participated in Bounce Forward, at the end of the programme, and 3–5 months later, when they started Year 6.
Negotiating Leadership in Interdisciplinary Co-Productive Research: A Case Study
In the absence of empirical and conceptual considerations of the negotiation of leadership in teams doing community-based research, this article adds to the leadership literature by offering a critical reflection on positioning and collaborative teams in the context of one interdisciplinary, co-productive, cross-generational and international research project.
United We Stand: Youth perspectives on developing resilience to drought in South Africa
These issues have been identified as central to this project: * The general failure to implement existing drought policy in South Africa * The absence of youth in developing and implementing policy * The worsening effects of climate change and drought * Weak government and community responses to drought
Resilient Therapy with children in crisis
This article offers an overview of Resilient Therapy (RT) and outlines a case study of how it can be used in practice. RT draws on the resilience research base, and has been designed to meet the needs of children in crisis by providing insights and analytical tools that help carers and practitioners build relationships of trust in the hardest of circumstances.
Resilience to reoffending: Practice considerations for psychological therapies supporting young men
Within the United Kingdom, 75% of young men aged 18–25 will reoffend within two years of being released from prison, yet we still do not know enough about how underlying protective mechanisms contribute to positive outcomes for those who have engaged in antisocial behaviour. This study explored the mechanisms that support young men’s resilience to reoffending.
Health ‘care’ interventions: making health inequalities worse, not better?
Aim. The aim of this paper is to present a model, the ‘Effect of the Professional Ego’, which provides a psychodynamically informed analytical framework for examining professional practice in arenas where issues of inequalities need to be addressed.
Inequalities in health care provision: the relationship between contemporary policy and contemporary practice
The project Addressing Inequalities in Health: new directions in midwifery education and practice (Hart et al. 2001) was commissioned by the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (ENB). Here, we draw on those research findings to consider current midwifery policy and practice in England.
Indirect treatment of fostered and adopted children
In order to protect children from a multitude of treating professionals, thereby potentially further weakening the emerging parental attachments, a model is proposed of indirect treatment of children, with the adoptive parents as co-therapists.
Impacts Between Academic Researchers and Community Partners: Some Critical Reflections
Hannah Macpherson, School of Environment and Technology University of Brighton. Angie Hart, School of Applied Social Science University of Brighton. Becky Heaver, School of Applied Social Science University of Brighton.
Joint response to the Department for Education consultation
A joint response from the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice and Boingboing to the the Department for Education consultation on ‘Character and resilience: Call for evidence’.
All together now – a toolkit for co-production with young people
Anne Rathbone from Boingboing and the University of Brighton, along with colleagues from the Wolverhampton HeadStart Young People’s Engagement Team have written this free to download toolkit for co-production.
Building a new community psychology of mental health: Spaces, places, people and activities
A much-needed account of informal community-based approaches to working with mental distress. Written in an unusually accessible, engaging style, this book will appeal to anyone interested in community / social approaches to mental health.
Adoptive family life and adoption support: policy and services
Barry Luckock, Lecturer in Social Work and Social Policy, University of Sussex, and Angie Hart Principal Lecturer in Health and Social Policy and
Practice, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK