4 Blankets of Resilience

Monique Gray Smith

The Ripple Effect of Resiliency

Strategies For Fostering Resilience With Indigenous Children

“Human resiliency is like a willow tree branch able to stretch, bend and then come back to almost the exact shape, but changed. When we experience life events that require us to be resilient, who we become is also changed. ”, writes Monique Gray Smith. "Resiliency in children makes them better able to handle everyday frustrations and stressors and to respond effectively to traumatic experiences. Ideally, the development of their resilience is part of their healthy development."

When Monique Gray Smith embarked on her research into resilience, she listened to the stories of many, many resilient indigenous people and wondered what was the catalyst that propelled them along a path of resilience. Through this research, she uncovered 4 themes that provide the strength to overcome adversity and trauma. Using a blanket metaphor, Monique Gray Smith identifies these 4 protective blankets that wrap around a child and build resilience:

strong sense of self
strong sense of family (i.e. who we love and who loves us - not necessarily biological family)
community and the sense of belonging
connection to culture, language and land

She offers:

One way to think of children and resiliency is to imagine them with four blankets wrapped around them. These blankets protect them, guide them, root them in who they are and where they come from…ultimately fostering their resiliency.

The 4 Blankets

Resilience and the power of one | Monique Gray Smith | TEDxLangleyED

This talk by Monique Gray Smith focuses on the 4 Blankets of Resilience and the influence one person can have in fostering resilience. She explores the importance of students ~ and all of us ~ having at least one person in our life who believes in us, encourages us and invites us to be bigger than we think we can be. It doesn’t mean this person always likes our behaviour, but they love us and they see the gifts we’ve been blessed with. They help to raise us up. As a child or in our adult life, these people help create a sense of belonging and responsibility. She refers to these people as Cookie People and they come into our lives for a moment, a portion of our life or they may journey with us for years. Their impact is profound. At some point, if we are lucky, we become a Cookie Person to a child; which in turn helps support our own 4 Blankets of Resilience.

Discussion Question:

Who are the Cookie people in your life (past and present)?

What began as a quest to understand the extraordinary had revealed the poser of the ordinary. Resilience doesn't come from rare and .special qualities, but from the everyday magic of ordinary, normative human resources in the minds, brains and bodies of children, in their families and relationships and in their communities. - Anne Masten, 2001, Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development, American Psychologist, Vol 56(3)

Mental Health and Wellness

When we turned our attention to the SD#48 Education Plan and the District survey data, we are compelled to focus on mental health and wellbeing. Some strategies that schools use to promote student mental health and wellness include building relationships, fostering a growth mindset, developing an inclusive culture. Identifying our layers of support and deriving strength from knowing our self, family, community, land and culture is at the core of the social-emotional learning linked to the 4 Blankets of Resilience.

Who am I? What are my strengths and gifts?
Who is my family? Who provides me with support and guidance?
Who is in my community? What joys come from engaging in and contributing to my community? What communities do I belong to?
What are my connections to land and culture and language?

Each time students, K-12, are engaged in self-reflection processes that encourage them identify their unique strengths, interests, stretches, needs, and supports, they are wrapping their 4 Blankets of Resilience more tightly around themselves. School (staff and students) can be part family, community and help the child uncover an empowered self-identity that includes celebrating culture, language and land.

Sharing, self-assessing, and reflecting on their strengths, stretches, interests, the supports from which they benefit, and their ‘next steps’ helps students build their sense of self-efficacy: the belief that they are capable learners who can grow and succeed.

(SD#48 K-12 Assessment Plan)

Monique Gray Smith...

Monique Gray Smith is a mixed heritage woman of Cree, Lakota, and Scottish descent and is the proud Mom of 11 year old twins. She is an award winning author, international speaker and consultant. Her career has focused on fostering paradigm shifts that emphasize the strength and resiliency of Indigenous children and families in Canada. Her leadership in the field of Aboriginal Education led her to create a resource called The Ripple Effect of Resiliency: Strategies for Fostering Resiliency with Indigenous Children. Monique’s first published novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nation, Métis and Inuit Literature. You Hold Me Up, a picture book that promotes dialogue about how we care for our friends, classmates and families, published in 2017 is another award-winning read that we are using in our schools. Monique is being touted as one of the up and coming Canadian authors to read. She is well known for her storytelling, spirit of generosity and focus on resilience.

Questions to ask yourself or your fellow parents/caregivers after watching...

1) How do you foster a child's positive self-identity and awaken their sense of self, at home and in the community?

2) What strategies/actions are you already using that you want to strengthen?

3) How might we, as a community, foster a child's sense of belonging, in home neighbourhoods, in Squamish, at school?

4) Who can you identify, both within family and community, as models of morality, values and positive life styles that are within our kids' sphere of influence?

5) In the video, Resilience and the Power of One, Monique reminds us that our children are watching us. She asks us to contemplate: "What do you want them to see?"

Want more?

Watch Monique Gray Smith read her latest book, You Hold Me Up.

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