Past Events
Past Conference
Past Events
Negotiating Resilience Meeting for Canadian members
Halifax, 2007
Negotiating Resilience members from Canada came together in Halifax at the beginning of this research project in 2007 to establish a viable framework for the Canadian component of the study. Training was also provided to four Canadian research assistants who will be conducting research in Canada and traveling to their matched international site to work with the research teams there.
[From left to right] Negotiating Resilience Project Manager Nora
Didkowsky, Nathalie Trepanier, RRC Principal Investigator Michael
Ungar, Les Samuelson and Ann Cameron
RRC Development Meeting
Boston, November, 2006
A small meeting was held at Tufts University, Boston, USA in November 2006 to discuss the further development of the Resilience Research Centre. Hosted by Dr. Richard Lerner and Dr. Erin Phelps of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, the meeting provided a valuable opportunity to consolidate conversations that had taken place internationally after the 2005 conference. The RRC partners from Canada, China, South Africa, and the USA were in attendance.
International Resilience Project Research Forum II
Halifax, June, 2005 (Pre- Pathways to Resilience Conference)
June 2005 saw the conclusion of the first phase of the International Resilience Project. To mark the event and, more importantly, to reflect on the study’s findings our second international meeting was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in advance of the first Pathways to Resilience Conference. Colleagues from thirteen countries around the world, including Canada, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Nepal, Palestine, Peru, Russia, SA, Tanzania, The Gambia, and the USA, attended. In addition to discussing the research findings, the team used the opportunity to explore future directions for the project. Much of these discussions is reflected in the summary report of the meeting proceedings, the final report of the IRP, and additional publications by the RRC members. The meeting also provided an invaluable opportunity to share the study and additional work of the team members with the broader international community investigating positive youth outcomes across disciplines and cultures. As such, the Pathways to Resilience International Conference was held immediately following this meeting. The conference also saw the launch of the Resilience Research Centre’s first edited publication, the Handbook for working with children and youth: Pathways to resilience across cultures and contexts.
International Resilience Project Initial Meeting
Halifax, March, 2003
In March 2003, the initial team members of the International Resilience Project met in Halifax, Nova Scotia to iron out the focus and methodology of this study. Twenty-two members attended from six different countries. Also in attendance were seven research assistants. The meeting followed months of correspondence via email and phone calls, and offered the team an opportunity to reflect on the initial sites of the study, the challenges youth faced in each of these contexts and the questions these challenges raised regarding both the ethics of the study and the most appropriate means of designing the study. The meeting established the foundations of the iterative methodology used in the IRP study – a methodology that continues to inform subsequent work carried out by the Resilience Research Centre and its members around the world. For more information on the meeting, see the summary report. For more information about the iterative research design that was developed, see the following publications:
Ungar, M., Lee. A.W., Callaghan, T. & Boothroyd, R. (2005). An international collaboration to study resilience in adolescents across cultures. Journal of Social Work Research and Evaluation, 6(1), 5-24.
Ungar, M. & Liebenberg, L. (2005). The International Resilience Project: A mixed methods approach to the study of resilience across cultures. In M. Ungar (ed.), Handbook for working with children and youth: Pathways to Resilience across cultures and contexts (pp.211-226). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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Past Conference
The Pathways to Resilience Conference was a unique gathering, representing a change in focus for scholars, policy-makers and on-the ground service providers. The presentations brought to the forefront the importance of context in children’s lives and the understanding that resilience can have many different meanings. There was an overwhelming sense of purpose throughout the conference, to move beyond the conventional to infuse resilience research, theory and practice with this new perspective. It was this enthusiasm and renewed drive to create change that participants voiced as what they were taking away from the conference.
Another highlight was the positive response received from conference delegates regarding the keynote and invited speakers. Cindy Blackstock, a member of the Gitksan Nation and the Executive Director of the Caring for First Nations Children Society in British Columbia, moved the crowd to tears with her presentation on how to address the structural barriers associated with First Nations child maltreatment. Conference delegates spoke of the immense impact of Dr. James Garbarino’s presentation on the impact of violence and trauma in the family, the community, and on child and youth development. Hamilton and Laurie McCubbin’s keynote address was also met with great enthusiasm. Finally, Zahava Solomon’s talk on stress, coping, protective factors and resilience across the lifespan provided a uniting bridge to the conference proceedings of the previous three days.
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