Individuals, families and communities demonstrate resiliency when they build caring support systems and solve problems creatively. While individuals, families and communities each have unique coping capacities, together they form a dynamic support system. Wendy Rolfe Cloud of Unknowing Resilient behavior is especially critical for today's children and families to build coping skills to counteract the impact of poverty, illness, substance abuse and violence. Survival is one resiliency indicator. The values and skills learned at home give individuals the power to shape their lives.
Families develop unique resiliency patterns over time.
A family's ability to recover from crisis is influenced by additional life stressors and by family perceptions. Certain characteristics are present in healthy families. These include focusing on commitment, appreciation, time together, communication, faith and values and coping skills. Focusing on these strengths significantly improves a family's self-help capacity and the impact of professional help.