How to Raise Resilient Young People

The Ministry of Youth Development hosted a series of workshops entitled 'How to Raise Resilient Young People'.

Dr Ken Ginsburg a renowned paediatrician specialising in adolescent medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia ran these workshops to help adults who care for teenagers, including professionals and parents, feel more comfortable with the strengths-based approach to communications with adolescents.

Steeped in resilience theory, it focused on how to shift adolescents toward positive behaviours and away from some of the quick fixes that can be so dangerous.

Workshops were organised in collaboration with the New Zealand Association for Adolescent Health and Development and the Ministry of Youth Development.

Specific goals included:

  • To learn how to create a zone of safety that clearly communicates to adolescents that we are trustworthy.
  • To learn how to propel young people towards wiser decisions. This starts by understanding that young people need confidence to change, and that focusing on what they are doing wrong undermines their sense of competency.
  • To learn to facilitate adolescents' own wise decision-making. A start is recognising that the typical model of adult intervention-lecturing backfires.
  • To learn to implement a stress reduction plan with children and adolescents. Because stress is a driving force toward negative behaviour, we wish to equip them with a wide repertoire of alternative positive behaviours.
Workshops were in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in September 2007.

More Information

For more information on these workshops, email us at mydinfo@myd.govt.nz









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