2018 saw the completion of Resilient Futures, a three-year trauma-informed wellbeing and resilience collaboration led by the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). Funded by Wyatt and The James and Diana Ramsay Foundation, this comprehensive program aimed to improve wellbeing and resilience among young people in disadvantaged communities across Adelaide.
Using a systematic approach based on Dr Martin Seligman’s PERMA dashboard (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment) plus Physical Activity, Nutrition, Sleep and Optimism, the project delivered, through schools and youth sector agencies, resilience training and mentoring support focused on achieving improved mental health outcomes, more active participation in the community, increased self confidence and increased resilience to stressful life events for vulnerable young people.
Since the program commenced in 2015, more than 100 teachers and youth workers from seven schools and youth agencies have trained more than 1,400 vulnerable young people. The program evaluation noted significant outcomes – finding that managers, workers and young people themselves reported improved self-regulation, greater positivity and use of resilience skills in their daily lives outside of the settings in which they were taught. Other outcomes reported for young people included notable improvements in self-awareness and confidence.
Click here to read the evaluation report, or visit the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre (https://www.wellbeingandresilience.com/young-people) website for more information about the project and the PERMA+ approach.
Click here to read the evaluation report, or visit the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre website for more information about the project and the PERMA+ approach.
