The Resilience Doughnut

Book excerpt: This thoughtful, accessible, inspirational and well written book outlines a model that can provide ourselves and our children with the capacity to face, overcome and be transformed by adversity. In Seven bite size chunks, the Resilience Doughnut model represents the outside influences that build resilience in children and protect them from stress or adversity. The model is a helpful guide for parents, teachers counsellors and anyone caringly concerned with their health, wellbeing and success in life. This book has the potential to bring resilience into the common language of families. The Resilience Doughnut has become a foundational ecological model of resilience used by practitioners all around Australia and is quickly spreading to other countries. The work of the Resilience Doughnut across a whole organisation builds student and/or staff awareness of the coping resources available and enhances a culture of resilience. To date the Resilience Doughnut has worked directly with schools and corporate and community organisations to build the resilience of young people, adults, staff and the community. The programs have shown an increase in resilience scores for all students, with those showing signs of anxiety and depression having the most to benefit over a long period of time. The key focus for these programs is to activate the strong and intentional connections in the community and existing relationships around each child.