'Ordinary magic' needs ordinary magicians : the power and practice of positive relationships for building youth resilience and wellbeing

Resilience has been defined as the “ordinary magic” of many children and adolescents overcoming daunting social circumstances or traumatic life events. (Masten, 2001). Although certain personal characteristics are protective, children experiencing adversity do not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The ‘resilient child’ is invariably embedded in a supportive social milieu somewhere in their lives, preferably early. The ‘magicians’ are those people - and institutions - who believe that every child is valuable, and have high expectations of them, who offer consistent and supportive alliance, warm emotional responses and who model and teach the practice of healthy relationships and relational values. Children are increasingly exposed to a range of adversities that impact negatively on their mental health and psycho-social functioning. This paper explores the ecology of wellbeing and how positive social connectedness is a critical component not only of resilience itself, but also as a facilitator of other protective factors. Although families and communities are central players, our focus here is on what schools might do to mediate outcomes for young people and enhance their resilience. This means paying attention to the social dimensions of the learning environment. It includes creating safe, supportive and empowering cultures, using strengths-based approaches, building social capital, increasing connectedness and belonging, teaching intra and interpersonal competencies and giving students opportunities to both demonstrate these and help others. We illustrate some of these aspects of social resilience in a project with young Aboriginal women in Australia.