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About the Foundation
The Raising Resilient Children Foundation
is dedicated to raising, supporting, and developing
stress hardy children. Current medical, mental health,
criminal and education statistics suggest that our current
course of raising children is falling far short of our
goals. Nearly 20% of children in the United States continue
to live in poverty. Children are more likely to be victims
of many types of violence than adults. Rates of assault,
rape and robbery against teenagers are two to three
times higher than for the adult population. Within families
spousal abuse is all too frequent and children are more
than twice as likely to be the object of an adult family
member’s rage as are adult partners. Parents today
are also much more likely to be absent from the home
and children appear to be exposed to increasingly more
stress-filled situations which compromise their capacity
to develop a resilient mindset and the skills necessary
to function effectively in every day life.
Yet a number of large scale scientific
studies suggest that as our world becomes increasingly
more demanding, complex and stressful, we can help children
become more resilient. We can build in buffers and resilience
factors that will assist them today and in their future
lives. It is the mindset we possess as parents, educators,
mental health and other professionals and the mindset
that we instill in our children about themselves, their
capabilities and the world around them that will allow
us to raise resilient children. The Foundation’s
goals are ambitious but we would argue critically important
in light of recent world events.
The Raising Resilient Children Foundation
through the Resilience Project is dedicated to
disseminating information to assist adults to raise,
support and develop stress hardy children. Based upon
the work of Drs. Robert Brooks, Sam Goldstein and others
the Foundation’s cornerstone is to help
children develop the capacity to cope and feel competent,
a process known as resilience. Numerous scientific studies
of children facing adversity in their lives have supported
the importance of resilience as a powerful, insulating
force. Resilience explains why some children overcome
overwhelming obstacles while others become victims of
their early experiences and environments. It is the
Foundation’s position that in our fast
paced, stress filled, complex society, no child is immune
from stress and thus all children must develop the skills
necessary to be resilient. The Foundation supports
The Resilience Project, a project to disseminate
information through the five major means by which members
of society acquire knowledge. It is the mission of The
Raising Resilient Children Foundation to utilize
the printed word, radio, television and film, the internet,
and face-to-face interaction. The five important avenues
by which information is conveyed in our community and
an ongoing national publicity campaign to disseminate
information about resilience. The processes exemplified
and the information disseminated will help parents,
educators, mental and medical health professionals,
as well as all members of the adult community instill
in children a sense of responsibility, values and the
ability to make good choices in their lives.
Foundation Principals
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