No Child is Broken: Recognizing and Building on the Strengths of ALL

Youth (with a focus on those who have endured trauma)

Ken Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Covenant House PA

Kids at Hope

Objectives1. To offer an overview on adults’ critical role in

building youth resilience

2. To understand what adverse childhood experiences do to the brain, body, and behavior

3. To consider how a trauma-focused approach prepares us to better serve ALL youth, especially those who may be “hardest” to reach

How do we define success for ALL Kids?

Resilience

• The Ability To Overcome Adversity

• The Capacity to Bounce Back

Resilience is a Mindset

Resilience

is

NOT

Invulnerability

The 7 C’s of Resilience

Confidence

Competence

Connection

Character

Contribution

Coping

Control

(Little, 1993; Pittman et al., 2003; Eccles and Gootman , 2002; Roth and Brooks-Gunn 2003; Lerner, 2004; Ginsburg,

2006; Frankowski, Leader & Duncan, 2009)

The Bottom Line

• Young People will be more resilient if the important adults in their lives believe in them unconditionally and hold them to high expectations

• Young People live up or down to the expectations we set for them

Breathe

Once upon a time there was a town that was built just beyond the bend of a beautiful river. One day some of the children were playing beside the river when they noticed three bodies in the water. They ran for help and the townsfolk quickly pulled the bodies out of the river.

One body was dead, so they buried her. One man was ill, so they took him to the hospital and nursed him back to health. The third was a healthy girl, who was then placed with a family who cared for her and took her to school.

From that day on, every day bodies came floating down the river, and every day, the people of the town would tend to them – taking the sick to the hospitals, placing the healthy with families, and burying the dead.

This went on for years, and the townsfolk not only came to expect a number of bodies each day but also worked at developing elaborate systems for picking them out of the river and tending to their needs. Some were generous in tending these bodies and a few extraordinary ones gave up their jobs so they could do this full time. And the town itself developed pride in its generosity and efficiency in body tending.

However, during all these years and despite the generosity and effort, nobody thought to go up river, beyond the bend that hid from sight what was above them and find out why, daily, those bodies came floating down the river.

(Adapted from Rolbeiser, R. (1999). The holy longing. New York: Doubleday)

The Parable of the River

Trauma Informed CareTrauma Informed Care

Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg DF, Williamson DF, Spitz AM, Edwards VJ, Marks JS.

Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death

in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive

Medicine 1998;14(4):245-258.

Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg DF, Williamson DF, Spitz AM, Edwards VJ, Marks JS.

Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death

in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive

Medicine 1998;14(4):245-258.

UNLESSUNLESS

The Effect of ACEs on the Brain

The Effect of ACEs on Behavior

How Do We React to Behavior

Being Trauma Informed is Healing (for Us and Youth)

But focusing on trauma holds the potential to re-traumatize, especially if

we lower our expectations

Tying it Together: Addressing Risk, Acknowledging Trauma but Developing Strengths

Behavioral Change 101

(What they’re missing)

The Five Steps of Behavioral Change

1. Awareness

2. Motivation

3. Skills

4. Trial and error

5. Maintenance

Confidence gets it started . . .

. . . and shame paralyzes all efforts

Finding Competence . . . . . . Building Confidence

Giving Kids Control Over Their Decisions

• Talking in a way young people understand

• Recognizing the cognitive development of adolescence

• No more lectures!!!!!!

Learning Not to Undermine Competence

You fight, but she uses her

knife first

Stabbed in back

Maimed and left in a

wheelchair

You fight, but she uses her

knife first

Stabbed in theheart

You arekilled

You fight and kill her

How long are you Happy?

Jail20 years

Your mom is ashamed

Noeducation

Nojob

Die poor, with no family

You don’t fight

How long are you angry?

You finish school

You have kids

Your momis proud

Life Running with Gangs

Death and Destruction

A Future as an Architect, Building Your Community

Sense of control returns

Resilience

• Is about learning to cope, in a positive way with life’s inevitable stressors

• We might do our greatest good by raising youth with a wide repertoire of positive coping strategies

Help youth to know how much they matter (They are treasures)

Recognize the credentials they bring to the world (They come with gifts)

Do The Work It Takes To Love

The Second Sentence

Offer Radical Calmness Amidst a Chaotic Reality

There is no “other”

There is only US

FosteringResilience.com