Resilient Midlands is a movement to build Richland County into a trauma-informed, resilient community. RM aims to reduce the stigma of trauma and equip individuals and organizations with information and skills to build resilience among children and youth.
Resilient Midlands is focused on three key strategies:
1. Social and emotional intervention to assist parents with stress management
2. Targeted training for parents to promote healthy family environments
3. Engage youth with a life skills curriculum
- Component #1 – Peer Support Circles
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Support and training for social and emotional intervention to assist parents with stress management. We are using Community Champions to serve as advocates and organizers. The Champions will receive Triple P training, allowing them to provide light one-on-one consultations with families in the community, develop relationships with the parents and caregivers, recruit residents to the peer support circles to help connect them to concrete support and available resources in the community. We are hoping to use North Main Library as a resource hub with a social worker acting as a resource coach for the Champions. Protective factors addressed: Build, Support and Share.
- Component #2 – Parental Engagement
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Triple P training events for parents that are designed to prevent behavioral and emotional problems in youth and promote healthy family environments that encourage children to realize their full potential. We have an agreement with Columbia Housing, who will recruit and enroll both Resilient Midlands program participants. Columbia Housing will also maintain a database of those participants and provide meeting space for in-person groups. Protective factors addressed: Create and Support.
- Component #3 – Youth Mentoring Program
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Engage youth with a life skills curriculum that expands their cultural and career boundaries and creates opportunities for them to build relationships with supportive adults. We are still deciding at what level to intervene – whether middle or high school and still working to identify a curriculum that fosters those one-on-one relationships.
We plan to include exposure to Juvenile Justice Jeopard, which is an interactive game that we have been using to create a meaningful dialogue to help youth gain a better understanding of their legal rights and to share strategies that discourage negative consequences when interacting with peers and law enforcement. Protective factors addressed: Grow and Create.