Building Community and Family Resilience - Research, Policy, and Programs

This interdisciplinary volume examines the relationship between community resilience and family resilience, identifying contributing factors on the micro-, meso-, and macro-level. Scholars and practitioners focus on how community-level policies and programs facilitate the distribution of resources, assets, and opportunities that provide valuable assistance to families who are struggling or in crisis due to economic hardship, mental illness, and the effects of natural and human made disasters. Additionally, representatives of local government and community agencies on the 'front lines' of developing policies and programs to assist families provide valuable context for understanding the ways communities provide environments that encourage and nurture family resilience.

Among the topics covered:

• How cities promote resilience from a public health perspective
  
• Family resilience following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
  
• Resilience in women from trauma and addiction
  
• Trauma-sensitive schooling for elementary-age students 
  
• Developing family resilience through community based missions
  

Resilience and the Community will be of interest to policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners seeking to facilitate the development of evidence-based resilience practices, programs, and/or policies for those working with families at risk.

Amanda W. Harrist received her Ph.D. in Child Development at the University of Tennessee. She is currently Associate Director for Education and Translation at the Center for Family Resilience at Oklahoma State University, where she is also a Professor of Human Development and Family Science. Her research is focused on understanding psychosocial risk and protective processes in children's social contexts, particularly the parent-child relationship and peer relations at school.

Michael Stout, Ph.D., George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Family and Community Policy, Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Science, Oklahoma State University.