Nonprofit brings skills of resiliency to at-risk children

During the weekly sessions, the elementary schoolers practice silence and introspection, guided by two women who visit several schools sharing The Resilience Project.

The project is sponsored by The Silence Foundation, an Oklahoma nonprofit organization that encourages children and adults to observe silence in an almost meditative state, using techniques such as noticing where their breath originates, listening for the room to settle into silence after the resonance of a bell dissipates and journaling what enters their minds during silence.

“One of the reasons why we use this kind of silence is because it helps us focus and helps us be present in the moment,” Patricia Webb tells the roomful of attentive children.

The Resilience Project is a 10-session curriculum that combines mindfulness, image-based journaling and sharing circles geared toward helping kids identify their inner and outer resources and learn how to apply them in their lives.

“We're very devoted to helping children and adults find inner stillness, reflective ability — that kind of quality of thoughtfulness about your life. Mindfulness, we call it,” Webb said.

Webb is a teacher, writer and Oklahoma Artist-in-Residence since 1991. Cathy O'Connor, a Resilience Project facilitator, has 28 years' experience as an educator and holds a master's degree in family and child studies with an emphasis on resilience.

The project emphasizes seven traits of resiliency: insight, independence, relationships, creativity, initiative, humor and morality.

These traits of character are innately within us, O'Connor said, but sometimes “when we get slammed by life, we don't know that we have these strengths to rise above it or move beyond it.”

According to the foundation's website, www.silencefoundation.org, many kids caught in desperate situations don't have the skills to create solutions or rise above their circumstances. Without tools of resilience, they give up hope and are at risk for dropping out of school, violence, abusing drugs, becoming pregnant or committing suicide.