Learning Opportunities

Target Audience: All teachers, administrators, guidance counsellors, and partners are encouraged to attend.

In this fast-paced, story-filled presentation, Dr. Ungar will show that our children’s resilience is much more than their individual ability to overcome adversity. It is just as much the result of how well their families, schools and communities work together to help vulnerable young people navigate their way to the resources they need for wellbeing, and whether those resources are made available to children in ways children experience as meaningful. In addition to exploring what resilience means to children from many different backgrounds, Dr. Ungar will also provide nine practical strategies parents, caregivers and educators can use to help children heal, no matter a child’s emotional, psychological or behavioral problems.

Specific learning objectives for this session are:

1. To understand how children and families with complex needs use “problem” behaviours to enhance their resilience and wellbeing when more socially acceptable solutions are not available;
2. To become familiar with how to assess resilience;
3. To learn about nine resilience-promoting resources necessary for positive child development;
4. To develop strategies for working without resistance with hard-to-reach, culturally diverse children, adolescents, and their families;
5. To discuss ways services can be structured for children and families that make resilience more likely to occur.