On this page you will find articles and links to a variety of resources that aim to support the mental health and resilience of children, young people, families and adults facing systemic disadvantage. These resources are aimed at people wanting to improve thier own and others resilience including young people, parents and carers and practitioners. 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..
Sign up for news about our latest free resources, opportunities, blogs and events.
Did you know you can now order our printed books directly from us, along with items from our range of co-produced resilience tools, through our online shop?
See also:
All resources for supporting mental health and 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.
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.
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.
Mind your (pathologising) language! blog
Negative, pathologising language is often used to describe behaviour, thoughts, and feelings that lie outside the norm, with little attention given to the consequences and how it can help to create mental health stigma.
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.
Schools mental health guide
Supporting children and young people in their mental health: A guide for East Sussex schools. A resilience-based, whole school approach to promoting positive mental health and addressing individual needs.
Understanding resilience and the whole school approach – Schools mental health guide
Resilience is not a personality trait. Innate characteristics play a part, but resilience is something that can be promoted and developed, through the provision of support and opportunities for growth.
Utilising the Noble Truths to support children and young people – Schools mental health guide
This section is about utilising the Noble Truths to support work with children and young people on mental health issues. The Noble Truths are: Accepting, Commitment, Conserving and Enlisting.
Supporting mental health and emotional wellbeing at school
A short guide to how you can best support mental health and emotional wellbeing at school – Tips for teachers and staff in schools as recommended by young people.
Co-produced resilience tools
If you came to our Designing Resilience event in November 2015 you will remember the amazing range of resilience tools being developed by young people with complex needs together with local communities, digital artists and designers, academics, parents, practitioners and policy makers.
Helping Children with Complex Needs Bounce Back
Resilient Therapy is an innovative way of strengthening children with complex needs, that anyone can use. This tried-and-tested handbook is accessible and fun, includes exercises and worksheets, and breaks down research to apply to everyday situations.
One Step Forward – Young people in care
A visual guide to resilience written & illustrated by young people in foster care and care leavers, Boingboing, the Virtual School for Children in Care and the University of Brighton. Navigate your route towards resilience! Take your time to explore the activities, enjoy the images and take inspiration.
Changing Lanes – Promoting resilience to reoffending
Changing Lanes is a research-based toolkit that helps us understand what can be done to support young men who have been involved in crime to find different paths. The toolkit shares the voices of 8 young people who took part in the research.
Mental health and the Resilient Therapy toolkit
This book is for any parent or carer who is concerned about the mental health of their child. It is written by young people who have themselves experienced mental health issues, with a little help from a couple of adult friends.
Our schools-based resilience projects
Our schools-based resilience research adapts the Resilience Framework for use in schools and helps schools make resilient moves across the whole school community. Many different types of school are working with us on this.
A Kinship Carers’ Resource – Using Resilience Ideas in Practice
Becoming a kinship carer can be a hard job. It may well be harder than anything that you have ever done before. Kinship carers care for grandchildren, nieces, nephews or children who are friends of their family.
Make Your Mark Film about Visual Arts Practice for Resilience
This documentary about the project includes footage from the resilience-building arts workshops, the project exhibition showcasing the young people’s art work, and interviews and artists statements from the young people experiencing mental health complexities and /or learning difficulties who participated in the workshops.
Visual Arts Practice for Resilience: A guide for working with young people with complex needs
The aim of this guide is to offer practical advice and ideas that are affordable and accessible, and can be put into practice with groups of young people. As well as showing how you might put resilience theory into practice and facilitate art based activities.
Building resilience through arts resources
An arts for resilience practice guide has been produced by the project team (including young people). It contains instructions on how to conduct a range of practical visual arts activities that we have identified as being resilience promoting.
The Insiders’ Guide parent carer support course
Parenting has got to be one of the hardest jobs there is – and it’s tougher when you have a child with additional needs such as a disability, special educational need, complex health or behaviour issue.
