Roots of Resiliency

The Practice: Developed by the University of Calgary, Roots of Resiliency is a seven-week program designed to foster resilience, support academic success, and help students navigate through change and challenging times. Roots of Resiliency is intended for all post-secondary students who want to foster resilience or self-identify with experiencing mild to moderate stress, anxiety, and/or depression. The program includes modules addressing: 1) Introduction to resilience, wellbeing, and goal-setting; 2) Social connectedness; 3) Physical literacy; 4) Spiritual connectedness; 5) SMART student nutrition; 6) Resilient thinking; and 7) Stress management.

Delivered by dedicated program coordinators and facilitators, Roots of Resiliency is an upstream program that empowers students to actively maintain their health and wellbeing. The facilitator guide was developed to assist program coordinators with administering the program and is laid out session by session, allowing facilitators to customize the program schedule if required.

Roots of Resiliency Website
Roots of Resiliency Facilitator Guide (PDF)
Roots of Resiliency PowerPoint Slides (Website with download link)

The Evidence: The program has been piloted with a wide range of students. The original Roots of Resiliency pilot program (2014-2016) was evaluated using pre- post- survey measures, including the CDRISC-25, PHQ-9, and GAD-7. A participant-oriented evaluation approach was implemented in 2018. Student advisory groups and program facilitators actively engaged in the evaluation and revision of the program. The revised program was evaluated using pre- post- survey measures (i.e., CD-RISC-25, PHQ-9, GAC-7) and 1-month follow up focus groups. Evaluation data from both the pilot and revised programs demonstrated significant increases in resilience.

Thannhauser, J., Brillon, H., Nordstokke, D., Szeto, A.C.H., & Dobson, K. S. (2023). Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Resilience Program for Post-Secondary Students: A Pilot Study. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 42(3): 13-27. doi: 10.7870/cjcmh-2023-019

Thannhauser, J., Szeto, A.C.H., Dobson, K. S., & Nordstokke, D. (2022). Using participant-oriented research in post-secondary mental health program development and evaluation. Journal of Public Mental Health, 21(4), 323-330. doi: 10.1108/JPMH-05-2022-0047

Practice Category: Promising

Health Equity: Yes