Major Messages from Resilience Research

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Major Messages from Resilience Research
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Its HOW we do what we do that counts.
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Protective Factors Critical to Healthy
Development Life Success
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Protective Factors Critical to Healthy
Development Life Success
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Reframing Risk to Resilience
DEFICITS STRENGTHS Hyperactive __________ I
mpulsive __________ Stubborn __________ Wil
lful __________ Tests Limits __________ Exp
losive __________ Defiant __________ Angry
__________ Withdrawn __________ Aggressive
__________ Victim __________
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Our ResilienceThe Power We Have to See in a New
Way
We who lived in concentration camps can remember
the men who walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of bread.
They may have been few in number, but they offer
sufficient proof that everything can be taken
from a man but one thing The last of his
freedoms--to choose ones attitude in any given
set of circumstances, to choose ones own way.
-Viktor Frankl, Mans Search for Meaning
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Teaching Personal Resilience Means Challenging
the 4 Ps

• Personal This isnt your fault.
• Pervasive There are good things.
• Permanent This too, shall pass.
• Prompt Have patience and trust the process.

Adapted from Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism
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Protective Factors Critical to Healthy
Development Life Success
HIGH EXPECTATIONS Belief in peoples
resilience Respect confirmation Challenge
support Firm guidance Structure/rituals Strengths-
focused Reframing the story Teaches personal
resilience
CARING RELATIONSHIPS Being there Models
caring Showing interest in Getting to
know Compassion Listening/Dialogue Patience Basic
trust/safe
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Effective Learning Approaches from Evaluation
Research
Caring Relationships High Expectations Meaningful
Participation

• Arts-based
• Adventure/Active
• Community Service
• Small Group Process
• Project-based
• Mentoring/Peer Helping

Promote Healthy Development Successful Learning
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The Power of Listening
I believe all any of us really wants is to feel
truly and deeply heard, seen, acknowledged, and
allowed to be ourselves Maybe if we just
practiced listening more, wed better understand
what a profound and empowering gift this simple
act can be.
Jon Wilson Hope Magazine (40), 2003
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Power of Sharing Our Stories
Hidden in all stories is the One story. The
more we listen, the clearer that Story becomes.
Our true identity, who we are, why we are here,
what sustains us, is in this story In telling
them, we are telling each other the human story.
Stories that touch us in this place of common
humanness awaken us and weave us together as a
family once again. -Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen
Table Wisdom, 1996
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Turning Pain Into Power
By structuring a curriculum that allows room for
students lives and by listening to their
stories, I can locate the right book, the right
poem that turns pain into power.
Linda Christensen, Rethinking Schools, Spring 2009
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Youth Development ProcessResilience in Action
Societal Impacts THUS PRODUCING, POSITIVE
PREVENTION SUCCESSFUL LIFE OUTCOMES
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Major Messages from Resilience Research
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The process of tapping resilience begins with the
belief of caregivers in human resilience.
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Paradigms for Prevention Education
Unit of Change Individual Environment Focus
Deficits Assets and Strengths Goal Problem
prevention Healthy development Attitude toward
youth Youth-as-Problems Youth-as-Resource Attitu
de toward diversity Eurocentric Multicultural A
ttitude toward learning Mechanistic Constructivi
st Strategies emphasize Program and
content People and Place Locus of
control External Internal Philosophy Control
Connectedness Whose needs are
met? Bureaucracies Young peoples
Bonnie Benard
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Resilience in action
begins with a Professional Learning Community
Shared Vision Belief In Human Resilience
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Turning to One Another
There is no power greater than a community
discovering what it cares about.
- Margaret Wheatley, 2002
A shared vision is a force in peoples hearts.
Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as
powerful as shared vision.
- Peter Senge
The Fifth
Discipline, 1990