As parents, educators, and school counsellors, we aspire to encourage children to be the very best that they can be by providing the necessary skill set to achieve success and rise above life’s challenges.
“Resilience in children is the ability to cope with challenges, to bounce back, and to overcome odds. It is important to a child’s sense of well-being, particularly in stressful circumstances. It’s a combination of skills and positive attributes”, and it’s a quality that can be nurtured and developed.” Socially strong, emotionally secure: 50 activities to promote resilience in young children. Nefertiti Bruce and Karen Cairone with the Devereux Center for Resilient Children. Silver Spring, MD: Gryphon House, 2010.
Gerald Fussell, Vice Principal at École Mark R. Isfled Secondary, SD#71 in the Comox Valley, began exploring the notion of ‘resilience’ in the hopes of creating a District-wide initiative that would best foster the facilitation of resiliency acquisition skills, fully recognizing that “bouncing back from today’s stresses is one of the best life skills children and youth can develop” (camh – Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2013).
A “Resiliency Committee” was formed in the fall of 2012. Committee members, Jana Buckle, Laura Commins, Ann Marie Kraft and Becky Stewart, all teachers and/or school counsellors within SD#71, set out to explore the topic of resilience and pursue G. Fussell’s vision for a District-wide resiliency initiative, both at the Elementary and Secondary level.
road2resiliency 