At Choices we love to encourage and equip young people to reach their full potential and one of the ways we do this is by promoting resilience so that they can ‘bounce back’ from the difficulties that life throws at us. We believe resilience is key to ALL members of society but psychologists have stressed the importance of resilience for those who live in high-risk environments.
Our team created a 6 week resilience course designed initially, for boys. After the third course was underway, the school approached us asking if we could do the same for girls, so I had the pleasure of running the FIRST EVER Girls Bounce.
The course covered self-awareness and reflective thinking; the difference between thoughts and feelings and how they can be managed; success and failure through re-framing failure as a concept; thinking about the future and who can help us to get what we want; and recognising and valuing our own skills and abilities.
There were many memorable moments and high points throughout the six weeks we had together. Firstly, Bounce brought together eight girls who wouldn’t normally spend time together and developed friendships and teamwork amongst the girls. One of my favourite moments was seeing the girls supporting each other and working together to achieve a common goal which would not have happened during the first week. It was such a privilege to see the girls grow and develop over the course and it was apparent that none of the girls wanted it to end. The girls expressed a new found confidence in themselves and their abilities as well and increased self-esteem and a wider support network.
Our hope is that we will be able to roll out this course across all the schools we work with overtime.
