Previous Resilience Forums

Emotional distress is high among those experiencing financial strain. This talk reconceptualises much of the preventative work that happens in community settings beyond the confines of experts, psychiatrists and psychologists and their discourses.

Mentoring can be a powerful tool for professional resilience. In this Resilience Forum we collaboratively looked at the concept of mentoring and how we can use mentoring for professional resilience and well-being in the workplace.

We know a great deal about the benefits of developing a hobby, but we know less about how they are initiated and sustained, especially for children experiencing adversity in their young lives.

Karen will explain the concept of Children’s Communities, and present her experiences of being involved in their development in the North East of England. She will facilitate discussion about what messages are relevant to Blackpool.

The aim of this Resilience Forum is to show and discuss what role ICT can take as a media to train and support individuals in adopting and implementing the Academic Resilience Approach in schools.

Come along to HeadStart Blackpool’s Resilience Forum to hear all about our experience in South Africa. The forum will show highlights from the Pathways International Resilience Conference which we were fortunate to attend.

Being resilient isn’t about coping alone with a ‘stiff upper lip’. Rather being strong in the face of adversity involves accessing and using support. And sometimes it involves changing your socks not ‘pulling them up’.

Peer Support offers opportunities for those with ‘lived experience’ to provide services to those facing similar mental health challenges. Recent research suggests that peer support may increase resiliency and improve health outcomes.

In social learning theory, learning is viewed, not merely as the acquisition of information and skills, but primarily as our changing ability to participate in the world: participation is not merely a context for learning, it is its core constituent.

Helen introduced what life was really like in her family before her involvement in the world of resilience, and how she and her boys have, separately and together, progressed along their life journeys over the last 10 years.

A brief summary of the Family Nurse Partnership and highlights of the evidence that it can make a difference for vulnerable mothers and their children.

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.

Topic: Creating a future vision – David Wolff, Community University Partnership Programme Resources: You can download Dave's slides and you can read our Blog. Session Summary: This session is about developing a future vision for your work using creative techniques. ...

What the academic literature says about why co-produced resilience research is important, the views of the co-researchers on the value of the experience for them and others, some examples of how we have tried (and succeeded!) in changing unfair situations that present us with tough challenges and what our research is saying about resilience for our group.

The Resilience Forum has been running for five years, with many topics and speakers, but what should it look like going forward over the next ten years? We invited people to contribute ideas, and we might have eaten some cake.

Project SEARCH ensures that there is no break for students between school and work, so that students do not become unemployed at any point, and are transitioned into the identity of a working person. Students are based in the workplace, learn employability skills and go on work placements every day to prepare them for a real paid job.

Beating the odds, and changing the odds, is an inspiring real story and personal view of resilience despite complex adversities by Simon Duncan. This session was recorded so you can watch Simon reflect on what has promoted his resilience.