By the difficult years of adolescence many youth have given up on their own abilities to create happiness and direct their future and are turning to unprotected sex, drugs, gangs, or anything they can find to take away their fears and pain and give them a sense of belonging and purpose. Building resiliency in children starts by building relationships. Before we can teach children to trust their hearts we have to show them through our relationship how valuable they truly are, regardless of what has happened in their past. They have to trust us enough to feel comfortable playing, laughing, crying, trusting their conscience, and taking risks that could result in failure. The resiliency model helps youth understand that they have purpose, that they can make a difference in not only their own lives, but the lives of others, and perhaps the world.
Resiliency is also about teaching youth how to stretch their comfort zones.
Skills are taught that encourage youth to view each disruption in their lives, whether that be the loss of a friend or an unplanned pregnancy, as an opportunity to learn and grow stronger in one's coping skills. We know that it is this search for security, purpose, belonging, and a sense of control over our lives that plays a major role in nearly all of the decisions we make in life. The resiliency model addresses these core needs while teaching a simple but powerful framework for getting these needs met successfully, in a way that we feel good about. 1 Richardson, Glenn, The Resiliency Training Manual. Dubuque, Iowa, Wm. C. Brown Communications, 1995.