Looking Back at the KFL&A Resilience Symposium
Warm Hellos from Teach Resilience!
Have you ever had a promising idea that, once you were rolling, became even better than you initially thought? Sometimes projects really pick up steam when passionate people take a seat at the planning table. There's something about generous go-getters that can really make stuff happen!
This was our experience with the KFL&A Resilience Symposium. Way back in the fall of 2022, we - your friendly neighbourhood Teach Resilience Team - had a dream of making an event to spark community conversation around matters of trauma, resilience and neural-sensitive approaches to service delivery. Maybe a seminar, or speaker's series or some sort of community dinner or something. All we knew was that we'd like to bring in Rick Griffin, Executive Director of Community Resilience Initiative (CRI, criresilient.org) to meet our community and share his wares. It was the sparsest of sketches.
Those broad strokes began to form a more complete picture when Zoe McDonald, Bridget Glassco and Anne Marie MacDonald joined the team. Zoe is the Program Assistant at Pathways to Education while Bridget and Anne Marie are with the ARC - the Adverse Childhood Experiences & Resilience Coalition of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. (Yes, it's a mouthful.) All three are movers and shakers who can get things done!
To make this long story quite a bit shorter, the expanded team booked Rick, applied for and received a grant, and decided to do all the potential ideas plus a few more. It all came together this October 25-27. Together with the ARC, Teach Resilience hosted the KFL&A Resilience Symposium: Navigating Adversity Through the Power of Community. Over 3 days, upwards of 450 people engaged in 10 events at 6 different locations. Rick made it from Phoenix and offered his insight and personal experience to the mix. You can read more about the Symposium and our reflections here (link to Symposium archive page). It was a jam-packed, informative and powerful time. A big heartfelt thank you to all who participated!
The trauma responsive conversation is well under way in the KFL&A. Things are moving and we're not exactly sure how it goes from here. We've got stuff brewing. Stay tuned. One thing is certain, Teach Resilience was part of something that captured the imagination of some generous, wise and passionate people. We met more along the way. If that's you, let's chat. There's some good work to do, and a pile of ideas that need to take shape!
All fired up over here!
Garry (on behalf of Teach Resilience)
PS – Seriously, drop us an email, call us up, or book a cup with us. It's time to conspire.