Resilience Week is for everyone! Resilience can be celebrated individually, with family and friends, within organizations, and in community. Building resilience helps us and our community bounce back from difficult experiences. Resilience is rooted in connection and inspires creativity and care.

Celebrating resilience can look like engaging in self-care, taking a walk with a friend, building a community garden, planning wellness activities for your staff, hosting a workshop about trauma-informed approaches,  engaging in a community art project, planning a community block party - the list goes on!

Resilience Week has been celebrated in Virginia during the first week of May since 2020. Led by Virginia's Trauma-Informed Community Networks (TICNs), communities across the state engage in daily activities organized around a theme that help build resilience in our personal lives, families, work, and community.

We are all leaders in this work, and there are so many ways to creatively celebrate this week and build resilience within your family, community, or workplace. Below are some ways to participate and get started. We’re looking forward to seeing all the varied ways of celebrating resilience in Alexandria and throughout Virginia!

50 Ways to Celebrate Handouts

Sanctuary Sunday | Mindful Monday | Trauma-Informed Tuesday | Whimsical Wednesday | Tranquility Thursday | Friendly Friday | Self-Care Saturday

You are also encouraged to adapt and envision your own ideas for celebrating the week. Resilience-building looks different depending on your individual, community, and organizational needs, so do what works best for you! 

To Build Resilience All Year Long…

Join RAISE, Alexandria’s Trauma Informed Community Network, and help make Alexandria a more trauma-informed and resilient community! To sign up to our mailing list to receive RAISE updates, fill out this short registration form.

Today's Events:

• 4:00-5:30pm Resilience Film Screening and Discussion | Join RAISE for a free and virtual screening of the documentary film Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope.

Activities you can do on your own:

• You can rise through community all year long by joining RAISE, Alexandria’s Trauma Informed Community Network. By becoming a member of RAISE, you are joining a local movement that's helping to build a more trauma-informed and resilient community! To sign up to our mailing list to receive RAISE updates, fill out this short registration form. 

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Today's Events:

• 9:30 am-11:00 am Resilience Film Screening and Discussion | Join Greater Richmond SCAN for a virtual screening of the documentary film Resilience. 
• 6:30 pm-7:30 pm Coming HOME: Begin Within (A Sacred Space for Black and Brown People) | From Innerwork Center, “this space will focus on RE-member-ing who we are as beautiful black and brown people. Together we will engage in self-care tools, returning to our breath and sharing in the foundations of our culture.” This is a free virtual offering with rotating facilitators.

Activities to do on your own:

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Today's Events:

• 9:15 am-10:00 am Mindfulness + Meditation Mornings | Led by Innerwork Center faculty member Philip Davidson, these sessions explore a variety of mindfulness topics such as Acceptance, Equanimity, Waking Up, Vulnerability and the Four Qualities of the Heart. Included are brief talks on a specific topic, a guided mediation, a reflection question and time to interact with other participants.
• 10:00 am-11:30 am Cultivating Authentic Community Engagement | Led by Tamika Daniel, Behavioral Health Community Organizer with Greater Richmond SCAN, this workshop will provide a supportive environment for organizations to discuss how to engage community voice with authenticity and intentionality. 
• 12:30pm-2:00pm Build Resilience through ACEs training | Led by Dr. Stacey Hardy-Chandler, Director of Alexandria’s Center for Children and Families in the Department of Community and Human Services, this educational experience is helping Alexandria to develop a common language around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), trauma, and resilience in our community, explain why ACEs have so much effect throughout peoples’ lives, and shift our mindset around what we can all do to build a healthy, resilient community. 

Activities to do on your own:

Today's Events:

• 9:00 am-3:30 pm Building Resilient Communities Virtual Conference | Hosted by Greater Richmond SCAN, this free virtual conference will feature multiple workshop tracks with opportunities to hear about the amazing work being done in trauma-informed community networks throughout Virginia.
• 12:00 pm-12:45pm Break and Breathe | Take time to pause and breathe in community through this virtual lunchtime meditation group with Innerwork Center. Themes vary each week with a surprise facilitator from the IWC each session! Beginner to experienced practitioners are welcome. 

Today's Events:

• 9:15 am-10:00 am Mindfulness + Meditation Mornings | Led by Innerwork Center faculty member Philip Davidson, these sessions explore a variety of mindfulness topics such as Acceptance, Equanimity, Waking Up, Vulnerability and the Four Qualities of the Heart. Included are brief talks on a specific topic, a guided mediation, a reflection question and time to interact with other participants.

Activities to do on your own:

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Below are some highlights from Resilience Week 2021. Virtual events were hosted by organizations around the state on various platforms during Resilience Week, including:

• Resilient State & Federal Policies for Resilient Communities

• Racial Trauma & Resilience 101: Breaking Down Definitions & Historical Implications of Racism

• Racial Trauma & Resilience 102: Analyzing the Individual, Institutional, & Systemic Impact

See the webpages below for additional resources on building resilience and coping with stress and uncertainty:

• Coping with COVID-19 Fear and Uncertainty

• Multicultural Mental Health Resources

• Race Based Trauma Resources