Resilience > Thriving Framework

Photo Credit: Monika Aichele, New York Times

Photo Credit: Monika Aichele, New York Times

Before we start, we wanted to share how we are thinking and talking about the term “resilience”. Resilience is often defined as our ability to “bounce back” from experiences of adversity and about building our capacities to overcome serious hardships. Sometimes resilience is thought of as an individual trait. We are not referring to resilience as being “tough” or “capable” or putting responsibility on the individual to get through hard times or solve issues that are a collective or civic responsibility. We are also not referring to resilience as an individual trait. When we refer to resilience in these ways, it can place the burden on people to make their way regardless of access to resources or opportunities. See this article for more thoughts on this.

We instead are referring to resilience as an ongoing process, rather than something an individual has or as a solitary experience. We are using an expanded notion of resilience in which:

Together we can strengthen the resources and relational contexts in peoples’ lives to support healing in ways that help us go on together and even thrive

In this module, we are working towards a vision of resilience and thriving for all people. In this vision, the following is happening:

  • people’s healing and well-being is supported, 

  • people's sense of agency, voice, participation and contribution are acknowledged, valued and engaged, and 

  • barriers and inequities that people experience in their daily lives and in accessing services and support are removed. 

The following roadmap will guide us as we move through this module on how we can collectively do this work.