Building communal against teenage pregnancy

 BUILDING COMMUNAL RESILIENCE AGAINST TEENAGE PREGNANCY

 The Building Community Resilience (BCR) collaborative at the Redstone Center seeks to improve the health of children, families, and communities by fostering engagement between grassroots community services and public and private systems to develop a protective buffer against Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) occurring in Adverse Community Environments (ACEs) – the “Pair of ACEs." Connecting community organizations (through a church health ministry or trusted food pantry, for example) with larger systems (including those in health care, education, business, law enforcement) can begin to build a durable network to improve community wellbeing. 

BCR sees community resilience as an essential factor in improving public health outcomes. Community resilience originates from buffers in communities and families to protect individuals from the accumulation of stress due to adverse childhood experiences, such as exposure to emotional and sexual abuse, maternal depression, neglect or incarceration. When these exposures are experienced in adverse of the community environments (ACEs), characterized by violence, racism, or poverty, for example, the effects are compounded and often lead to multi -generational stress and poor health outcomes.

The work of BCR is to build networks that foster resilience against the stressors that can become toxic to a child’s development and long-term health: Adverse Childhood Experiences occurring in Adverse Community Environments.

As my work evolved over time, l learnt more about the relationship between trauma, equity and resilience. As we  develop resources for communities to communicate and engage in the community work.

Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’ during or after difficult times and get back to feeling as good as before. It’s also the ability to adapt to difficult circumstances that you can’t change and keep on thriving. In fact, when you’re resilient, you can often learn from difficult situations. All teenagers can build resilience, by developing attitudes like self-respect, social and organizational skills, and positive thinking habits. Parents support is also key in building block for the child’s resilience. You can’t always stop a child from experiencing problems or tough times. 

But you can play a big role in helping a child build resilience. A child can also gain strength from other supportive adults, like grandparents, aunts, uncles or teachers. Friends and classmates can be great sources of support too.

A child needs resilience to bounce back from everyday challenges like arguments with friends, disappointing test results or sporting losses. Some young people face more serious challenges like family breakdown, family illness or death, or bullying. And some have more challenges than others because of learning difficulties or disabilities, or because they have more anxious personalities. Resilience will help them with these challenges. Resilience is more than just coping. When you’re resilient, you’re more prepared to seek new ways to overcome your challenges and achieve your goals. Although this might mean taking some risks, it also creates opportunities for success and greater self -confidence.

Personal values and attitudes for building resilience Self-respect is a great building block for resilience. Self-respect grows out of setting standards for behavior. If a child has self-respect, she/he believes that she/he matters and should be treated respectfully by others. She’s/he’s also more likely to protect herself by avoiding risky behavior and situations. A strong sense of self-respect will also help your child be less vulnerable to bullies and bullying. Empathy, respect for others, kindness, fairness, honesty and cooperation are also linked to resilience. This includes showing care and concern for people who need support, accepting people’s differences, being friendly, not mistreating or bullying others, and taking responsibility for your actions.

 Having a strong, loving relationship with you and staying connected with you are the basis for all these qualities and values in your child. If you show your child love and respect, she’ll be more likely to care for herself and others. Social skills are another important building block for resilience. They include skills for making and keeping friends, sorting out conflict, and working well in teams or groups. When your child has good relationships at school and gets involved in community groups, sports teams or arts activities, he has more chances to develop connections and a sense of belonging. These social connections also mean that your child will probably have more people she trusts when she wants to talk about things that worry or upset her. Our articles on keeping teenagers active, finding extracurricular activities and getting teenagers into community activity also have lots of ideas to help your child make social connections.

By; 

Josephine K Mwangecho