Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) in Minnesota
Contact Info
Resilience Basics
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from challenges and get through stressful times. It is a skill that can be developed and strengthened through positive experiences and connection to family, friends, teachers, and community. These things can all be considered protective factors. No child is magically resilient or invulnerable to ACEs, just as no individual child is doomed in the face of ACEs. Resilience must be cultivated and continuously supported.
How to Build Resilience
There are many ways to build resilience individually, with our family, with peers at school, and in the community and systems that support children and youth. At the core of building resilience in childhood is positive adults and role models helping children to practice and cultivate the 7 C’s:
- Competence: the ability to handle stressful situations effectively. It requires the skills to face challenges, and opportunity to practice using the skills so that one feels capable in dealing with different situations.
- Confidence: the belief in one’s own abilities are rooted in competence. Children gain confidence by being able to demonstrate their competence in real situations.
- Connection: children with close ties to friends, family, and community groups are likely to have a stronger sense of security and sense of belonging. These children are more likely to have strong values and are less likely to seek out alternative destructive behaviors.
- Character: children with “character” enjoy a strong sense of self-worth and confidence. They are in touch with their values and are comfortable sticking to them. They can demonstrate a caring attitude towards others. They have a strong sense of right and wrong and are prepared to make wise choices and contribute to the world.
- Contribution: if children can experience personally contributing to the world, they can learn the powerful lesson that the world is a better place because they are in it.
- Coping: children who have a wide repertoire of coping skills (social skills, stress reduction skills) can cope more effectively and are better prepared to overcome life’s challenges.
- Control: when children can make their own decisions and actions, they gain confidence and are more likely to learn how to make effective choices, and how to adjust course when needed.
Source: The 7 C's of Resilience - Psychologist Gold Coast - CBT Professionals