While I applaud your evidence of positive impact, I have mixed feelings about the some of the underlying suppositions/assumptions that seem to influence “resiliency” initiatives. In the States, there has been a bigger push for this kind of work with children and families in poverty here.
My concern is that the burden is placed on children and our most vulnerable to survive and “thrive” in the face of horrible conditions, rather than truly confronting and improving conditions. I definitely believe that we must help every human being acquire the skills and capacity to have the life that makes them happy/successful, but we can’t stop working on a parallel track to create a more equitable and just world that doesn’t require one to overcome considerable income, gender, racial, sexual orientation, physical, etc. disparities.
Hi Brooke, Thanks for your comment - this is an important and well-founded area of concern that we hoped would be brought up, in part because we share it ourselves. Indeed, resilience research over the past few decades agrees that efforts should be made to improve conditions in the surrounding environment or community in order to help children to thrive. Ideally, this work would be done - as you say - in conjunction with work that affects the inner world of a child. In the absence of well-functioning support systems (government, schools, hospitals, social services etc.), however, where should you begin? We have found that a focus on resilience helps to empower youth with skills to improve their mental and physical health, as well as their education and their surrounding environments as well. Youth are able to take a stand to improve their environments once they have an inner foundation to draw upon (see for instance this blog post: http://corstone.org/resilience-and-clean-water). A sense of self-efficacy (that my actions can affect my environment in positive ways) is a huge missing piece here. In addition, our research confirms that the impacts of many existing interventions to improve health could be amplified if a resilience component was included.
Hi Steve, I appreciate your response and your attention to the balance that must be struck/duality of efforts when pursuing this work. I’m constantly working on being vigilant in checking my own assumptions that come from my relatively privileged position and I worry that sometimes certain efforts gain traction or become the cause du jour because they resonate with those in positions of influence and their experience—i.e. what they believe is the “problem” or “missing link” with those most in need. It’s certainly not malicious, but I think as much as some may need help in developing her sense of self-efficacy, worth, and empowerment to advanced one’s well-being (as you rightly acknowledge and are working toward); those of us in positions of influence need help understanding our broader obligations in regards to systemic change and our personal blind spots, as well! I’m glad to read that you are thinking about that and challenging it. Thank you, again, for all of the work that you and your team are pursuing at Corstone and for starting this important conversation.
Seems to me that enhancing the resilience of girls is a first, crucial step toward empowering them to play a role in changing their own communities, governments and societies. No matter how much we try to help, we can’t do it from the outside.
Is there a good collection somewhere of programs and research on the role of resilience in developing countries?
Leslie, Thanks for your question. There are some pretty good reviews and research around the importance of mental health interventions in developing countries, and the role/importance of resilience in more developed countries. However, to our knowledge there’s not yet a good repository of research reviews in developing countries as it’s a new area of investigation. We’re hoping that our work can contribute to this important and overlooked topic. If you’d like to have a further look at our research and some related work, you might want to check out the following on our website: http://corstone.org/research-results/
Not directly related, but you might also check out a recent systematic review of the mental/emotional effects of mental health interventions targeting adolescents in LMICs: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/835 (note that this review was conducted prior to the availability of results from our RCT). I should probably mention that we currently have scale-up trials underway with 35,000 youth in 350 schools in Bihar which, when combined with the RCT results, we hope will contribute to adoption of resilience-based interventions more broadly. Scale-up trials are an important next step as they provide much-needed insight into how to implement and adapt such programs to suit conditions in local schools, communities etc. Hope that helps!
Building up a girl’s resilience is key to improving their livelihood because difficult situations are bound to arise in life but with the ability to bounce back an empowered girl will achieve her dreams.
Great work you’re doing in India! Any chance you might start similar programs in Africa?
Agric, Thanks for your comment. We are very interested to expand into Africa and have several projects with local partners under consideration. At the moment, funding is the limiting factor. If you’re interested to speak more about this please feel free to contact me directly.
The governments and communities must fully realize that It is increasingly clear that a cross-cutting approach to gender equality is essential not only to the realization of girl’s rights, but to the achievement of the wider goals of development and peace.The world need to rethink internationally agreed development goals in terms of the missing link of gender equality with a view to ensuring thatgirls’s rights and potential are woven into the social and cultural fabric of all nations. All the development goals reinforce each other, but none can be reached without empowering girls and women with the capabilities and confidence they need to live in freedom and dignity.”
The governments and communities must fully realize that It is increasingly clear that a cross-cutting approach to gender equality is essential not only to the realization of girl’s rights, but to the achievement of the wider goals of development and peace.The world need to rethink internationally agreed development goals in terms of the missing link of gender equality with a view to ensuring that girls’s rights and potential are woven into the social and cultural fabric of all nations. All the development goals reinforce each other, but none can be reached without empowering girls and women with the capabilities and confidence they need to live in freedom and dignity.”
COMMENTS
BY Brooke
ON June 29, 2015 08:27 PM
While I applaud your evidence of positive impact, I have mixed feelings about the some of the underlying suppositions/assumptions that seem to influence “resiliency” initiatives. In the States, there has been a bigger push for this kind of work with children and families in poverty here.
My concern is that the burden is placed on children and our most vulnerable to survive and “thrive” in the face of horrible conditions, rather than truly confronting and improving conditions. I definitely believe that we must help every human being acquire the skills and capacity to have the life that makes them happy/successful, but we can’t stop working on a parallel track to create a more equitable and just world that doesn’t require one to overcome considerable income, gender, racial, sexual orientation, physical, etc. disparities.
BY Steve Leventhal
ON June 30, 2015 11:10 AM
Hi Brooke, Thanks for your comment - this is an important and well-founded area of concern that we hoped would be brought up, in part because we share it ourselves. Indeed, resilience research over the past few decades agrees that efforts should be made to improve conditions in the surrounding environment or community in order to help children to thrive. Ideally, this work would be done - as you say - in conjunction with work that affects the inner world of a child. In the absence of well-functioning support systems (government, schools, hospitals, social services etc.), however, where should you begin? We have found that a focus on resilience helps to empower youth with skills to improve their mental and physical health, as well as their education and their surrounding environments as well. Youth are able to take a stand to improve their environments once they have an inner foundation to draw upon (see for instance this blog post: http://corstone.org/resilience-and-clean-water). A sense of self-efficacy (that my actions can affect my environment in positive ways) is a huge missing piece here. In addition, our research confirms that the impacts of many existing interventions to improve health could be amplified if a resilience component was included.
BY Brooke
ON June 30, 2015 11:40 AM
Hi Steve, I appreciate your response and your attention to the balance that must be struck/duality of efforts when pursuing this work. I’m constantly working on being vigilant in checking my own assumptions that come from my relatively privileged position and I worry that sometimes certain efforts gain traction or become the cause du jour because they resonate with those in positions of influence and their experience—i.e. what they believe is the “problem” or “missing link” with those most in need. It’s certainly not malicious, but I think as much as some may need help in developing her sense of self-efficacy, worth, and empowerment to advanced one’s well-being (as you rightly acknowledge and are working toward); those of us in positions of influence need help understanding our broader obligations in regards to systemic change and our personal blind spots, as well! I’m glad to read that you are thinking about that and challenging it. Thank you, again, for all of the work that you and your team are pursuing at Corstone and for starting this important conversation.
BY Leslie Scallet
ON July 2, 2015 11:27 AM
Seems to me that enhancing the resilience of girls is a first, crucial step toward empowering them to play a role in changing their own communities, governments and societies. No matter how much we try to help, we can’t do it from the outside.
Is there a good collection somewhere of programs and research on the role of resilience in developing countries?
BY Steve Leventhal
ON July 3, 2015 03:05 AM
Leslie, Thanks for your question. There are some pretty good reviews and research around the importance of mental health interventions in developing countries, and the role/importance of resilience in more developed countries. However, to our knowledge there’s not yet a good repository of research reviews in developing countries as it’s a new area of investigation. We’re hoping that our work can contribute to this important and overlooked topic. If you’d like to have a further look at our research and some related work, you might want to check out the following on our website: http://corstone.org/research-results/
Not directly related, but you might also check out a recent systematic review of the mental/emotional effects of mental health interventions targeting adolescents in LMICs: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/835 (note that this review was conducted prior to the availability of results from our RCT). I should probably mention that we currently have scale-up trials underway with 35,000 youth in 350 schools in Bihar which, when combined with the RCT results, we hope will contribute to adoption of resilience-based interventions more broadly. Scale-up trials are an important next step as they provide much-needed insight into how to implement and adapt such programs to suit conditions in local schools, communities etc. Hope that helps!
BY Agric
ON July 6, 2015 02:06 AM
Building up a girl’s resilience is key to improving their livelihood because difficult situations are bound to arise in life but with the ability to bounce back an empowered girl will achieve her dreams.
Great work you’re doing in India! Any chance you might start similar programs in Africa?
BY Steve Leventhal
ON July 6, 2015 09:39 PM
Agric, Thanks for your comment. We are very interested to expand into Africa and have several projects with local partners under consideration. At the moment, funding is the limiting factor. If you’re interested to speak more about this please feel free to contact me directly.
BY pnyangaga
ON July 16, 2015 09:56 PM
The governments and communities must fully realize that It is increasingly clear that a cross-cutting approach to gender equality is essential not only to the realization of girl’s rights, but to the achievement of the wider goals of development and peace.The world need to rethink internationally agreed development goals in terms of the missing link of gender equality with a view to ensuring thatgirls’s rights and potential are woven into the social and cultural fabric of all nations. All the development goals reinforce each other, but none can be reached without empowering girls and women with the capabilities and confidence they need to live in freedom and dignity.”
BY paul
ON July 16, 2015 09:58 PM
The governments and communities must fully realize that It is increasingly clear that a cross-cutting approach to gender equality is essential not only to the realization of girl’s rights, but to the achievement of the wider goals of development and peace.The world need to rethink internationally agreed development goals in terms of the missing link of gender equality with a view to ensuring that girls’s rights and potential are woven into the social and cultural fabric of all nations. All the development goals reinforce each other, but none can be reached without empowering girls and women with the capabilities and confidence they need to live in freedom and dignity.”