What is Resilience?
Why is it important for young children in Snohomish County?
Resilience isn’t something we’re born with—it’s something we build together.
Resilience is not about avoiding hardship. It’s about the ability to adapt, recover, and find strength in the face of it. And it doesn’t develop in isolation. Trusted relationships, supportive environments, and trauma-informed systems all play a critical role in helping young people build this essential capacity.
Every young person faces challenges—but for some, those challenges are more serious, more complex, or more persistent. Poverty, trauma, discrimination, and instability can all have a lasting impact on a child’s development and well-being. But with the right support, young people can build the resilience they need not just to cope—but to grow, heal, and thrive.
Facts About Resilience
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Learn More About Resilience
This is an evolving collection of resources to learn more about resilience and the science behind it. It’s designed for parents, guardians, educators, and professionals, and we invite you to share your own recommendations.
The Science of Resilience
Brains: Journey to Resilience (Alberta Family Wellness Initiative)
Provides clear, science-based information on how early experiences shape brain development and lifelong health.
It’s a valuable resource for parents, professionals, and community leaders looking to apply this knowledge through tools, courses, and practical strategies.
Center for Resilient Children (Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health)
Offers resources to support emotional well-being and resilience in children and adults. It provides assessments, free webinars, professional development courses, and tools for parents and educators to foster social-emotional growth.
This site is ideal for those seeking evidence-based strategies to promote resilience.
Online Courses
Raising Happy, Healthy, and Resilient Children: Online Courses from the Trauma & Resilience Team (Snohomish County Health Department)
This is a free series of ten online courses that features the ten principles for raising happy, health, and resilient children. Opportunities for reflection and specific examples for putting these principles into practice are included throughout.
Course 1: Rising to Resilience – Hope & Family Values
Provides an overview on hope, the Adult Hope Scale, and family values.
Course 2: Rising to Resilience – ACEs, Trauma, and PCEs
Provides an overview on trauma, adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences, and an introduction to resilience.
Course 3: Rising to Resilience – Resilience through Self-Regulation
Provides an overview on self-regulation, a grounding exercise, strategies for improving self-regulation, a meditation exercise, and a self-regulation scenario activity.
Course 4: Rising to Resilience – Resilience through Healthy Relationships
Provides an overview of healthy relationships, listening, and showing care.
Course 5: Rising to Resilience – Resilience through Taking Action
Provides an overview on taking action, motivation, a stress resilience action plan, saying no, asking for help, lifelong learning, working toward a goal, and solving problems.
Course 6: Rising to Resilience – Resilience through Internal Beliefs
Provides an overview on internal beliefs, self-compassion, strengths, and affirmations.
Course 7: Rising to Resilience – Building Resilience in Children
Provides an overview on building resilience in children and a review of the course series.