Building Resiliency through Community

I study resilience as it relates to disaster response, and contemporary scholars are more or less in agreement that the concept of resilience is used as a way to place responsibility that belongs with the government onto individuals and communities that are hit the hardest by various extreme events (almost always low income communities of color). O... See more

This transmission invites us to see inspiration and creativity not as a luxury or a frivolous pursuit, but as an essential capacity for navigating the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing world. By cultivating creative resilience, we may not only unlock new sources of insight and innovation, but also develop the strength and adaptabil... See more

Learning to thrive in a resilient culture is essential. Being indoctrinated into a rigid and fragile mindset is not.

But these activities are all separate from the feelings needed to fully and sustainably participate: the courage, optimism, trust, love, intimacy, curiosity. The resilience to push through the inevitable feelings of fear, overwhelm, frustration, and hurt. The stamina to go through cycles of all of these feelings and more, again and again, and conti... See more

Resilience requires a kind of elasticity, an ability to stretch and reach but then to return, to spring back into a former shape—or perhaps to shapeshift into something new if the circumstances require it. Resilience is stretchy where optimization is brittle; resilience invites change where optimization demands continuity. But whether we’re talking

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