The Resilience Revolution

The programme entails recruiting almost 11,000 young people in Blackpool and involving them at every level including training, commissioning, and promotion, to provide best practice resilience services and support.

The programme is based on research and practice development at the university’s Centre of Resilience for Social Justice and Boingboing, a social enterprise working closely with the Centre.

Diane Booth, Director of Blackpool Council’s Children’s Services, said: “Based on the work of Professor Angie Hart and her colleagues at the University of Brighton, the approach is underpinned by robust research, which validates the work nationally and internationally.”

Writing this month in The MJ, the online management journal for local authority business, Diane credited young people for starting the “Resilience Revolution” and bringing in £11m funding via the National Lottery Community Fund’s HeadStart programme.

With involvement from children and their families the new approach involves “co-production” at every stage using the mantra ‘nothing about us, without us’.

Blackpool had more than ten thousand 10-16 year-olds needing opportunities to build their resilience and to achieve a brighter future – and they are now helping the town “get it right”, something Diane said is being embedded across the whole of Blackpool Council.

Professor Angie Hart

Foster carers have been put at the heart of the child care teams and core values which young people have come up with have been adopted. These include: “Never give up on me”; “Show mutual respect and kindness”; “Think about what you write about us”; “Don’t use jargon”; “Help us to find our own solutions”; and “Have discussions not meetings”.

Diane said: “Once finalised, this initiative will mark the start of a new era for our young people and families.”

An additional £5m is being invested in children’s services to increase workload capacity: “Anyone coming to work at Blackpool Council can expect children to be at the heart of everything we do.”

The Centre’s other resilience work has already brought practical, sustainable solutions to health and wellbeing challenges throughout Europe, South East Asia, Australia and Africa. The Blackpool programme runs to 2021, and, if successful, could become a blueprint for other UK towns and cities looking for innovative place-based approaches to building resilience.

University of Brighton researchers led by Dr Suna Erigit-Madzawamuse and Dr Josh Cameron  are evaluating the progress of the programme and an International Resilience Revolution conference co-organised by young people will take place in Blackpool coinciding with the famous illuminations in September 2020.

You can listen to young people on the Resilience Pathway and how they are helping address the inequalities that “weigh heavy on our community”.