Building resilience to move on in life and enjoy living, feeling confident and happy, is something we strive daily to achieve with all our clients at Launchpad 135, our work and life skills centre.
We do this by offering a wide range of activities from art therapy to digital skills, cooking nutritious meals to counselling sessions, there is much to choose from.
We ran our second ‘building resilience course’ in November which is delivered by Activate Learning. Let’s find out what it is all about. We speak to Emma and Sarah.
How would you describe a resilience course?
Some life events and experiences can really push us and test our ability to deal with adversity; resilience is one of the skills we need to help us through tough times. My ‘Building Resilience’ course explores resilience, what it means, where it comes from, how it can be damaged and what we can do to build it back up.
How do you use the course in relation to clients at 135?
We cover more broad themes around resilience, and I also invite clients to share their own experiences so I can ensure the course is helpful to them at an individual level. We spend time looking at the day-to-day experiences that can challenge people, as well as the bigger life events.
What do you hope they will achieve?
I hope that attendees will achieve a better understanding of resilience and how they can use it in their lives to help them through difficult situations. I also hope that attendees will achieve a feeling that they ARE resilient and that they CAN manage.
Why would someone need to build their resilience?
People often need to build their resilience when difficult life events have got in their way or worn them down. A low sense of personal resilience might be a result of other people telling someone that they can’t do something or that they’re bad at something.
Could you share an example of a success story?
An attendee found it extremely difficult to have phone calls with agencies to discuss financial matters, they felt anxious, overwhelmed and would avoid making the calls altogether. They were able to tap into their resilience, plan, prepare and take small steps towards making these phone calls. The course material and support of other attendees helped them to feel that they were in control and capable of taking this difficult step, which they did.