Connection Matters! Strengthen Resilience with Full-Color Webs of Support

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Brightways Learning

First Presenter’s Email Address

dpavish@brightwayslearning.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

David Pavish is the Resiliency Director at Brightways Learning, an educational non-profit organization dedicated to empowering students and educators. With two decades of experience working with students in diverse educational settings, David has garnered a wealth of knowledge and expertise in fostering resilience and personal growth among young minds. David has cultivated his skills under the mentorship of renowned youth and experiential education professionals. This unique background has equipped him with an in-depth understanding of the factors contributing to student success. David spearheads resilience-building events for youth, provides transformative educator training sessions, and actively engages in state and national education conferences, sharing his insights and fostering a culture of resilience within the educational landscape. David's approach to supporting and guiding students is deeply rooted in a holistic perspective, recognizing that resilience is not a destination but rather a continuous journey of self-discovery and growth. He empowers students to navigate challenges, embrace setbacks, and emerge stronger, more resilient individuals, ready to thrive in an ever-changing world.

Location

Session Six

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Home: Family & Community Engagement

Relevance

The Full-Color Webs of SupportTM framework provides a language and proven practices on which to build locally responsive programs that amplify the impact of what schools and communities are already doing to support their students. Together, students and adults build personal webs of support, forming stronger networks, building resilience, and mitigating trauma.

Brief Program Description

When students and adults develop healthy connections, the impact sends positive ripples throughout schools and communities. These connections build webs of support that take students from where they are to where they want to be in life. Learn a practical, easy-to-implement framework and strength-based language that will improve the trajectory of students at home, school, and throughout their lives.

Summary

When students and adults work, build, and grow together, so do communities as a whole. This is especially evident inside the school building. The more youth and adults have connections and work to deepen those connections through the lens of a strength-based framework, the healthier a community becomes. As youth and adults build webs of support within their communities, the less likely youth are to slip through the cracks.

Participants will learn about the Full-Color Webs of SupportTM framework, combining the greatest research in youth development into one measurable framework. Programs are often deficit-based and focus on improving what is wrong. However, data indicate that by implementing a strengths-based approach -- i.e., focusing on what the school, class, and students are doing right -- the negatives diminish. The framework makes this possible and measurable.

The Full-Color Webs of Support framework is made up of seven FactorsTM:

Factor Red - Rule of 5

Every child/youth needs to have and maintain at least five positive, caring adults ("Anchors") in his or her life who have and communicate high expectations for them.

Factor Orange - Tangible Supports

Easy-to-measure environmental supports typically provided by an individual's family, school and larger community.

Factor Yellow - Intangible Supports

Harder-to-measure supports that each individual holds and nurtures within. They are virtues, values, and behaviors that have been taught to, modeled for, and absorbed by the individual.

Factor Green - The Child/Youth

The child/youth has innate resiliency factors (biological characteristics, talents, intelligences, and gifts), most of which can be grown.

Factor Blue - Scissor Cuts

These are deficit behaviors/factors that can undercut a child/youth's ecological health

Factor Indigo - Caring for the Carers

Each Anchor needs to have his/her own network of support. They need support in order to avoid "dropping the strings" in the "webs of support" of the children/youth that they anchor.

Factor Violet - Social Norms

Climate or context have strong influence on what behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs the child/youth internalizes and/or participates in.

Evidence

An Alaska Native Education Program project report (July, 2015) to the U.S. Department of Education shared evaluation results from across its four partner school districts that showed not only had participating students increased their number of "Anchors" (caring and connected adults) from 2.9 to 4.6 on average, but they had also increased their depth of connectedness to adults from 14.1 to 25.6 on average. Furthermore, the report showed that students also increased their tangible and intangible supports, thereby growing their "web of support" overall. These support metrics increased by 5.6% and 8.5%, respectively. Student innate resilience (e.g., including grit and optimism) also increased by 21.3%. Risk factors (alcohol, drugs, abusive high risk behaviors, etc.) decreased by 7.9%. Improvement in social norms showed a gain of 2.5%. Reading and Math scores of participating students also increased during this time. Similar results have been attained by other schools and communities that have implemented Kaleidoscope Connect program components.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will understand the Full-Color Webs of Support framework and how it enables students to build resilience and protective factors while decreasing risk behaviors.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will learn how to grow student resilience through connection.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will develop and use a holistic lens to see students and the community.

Keyword Descriptors

student resilience, webs of support, SEL, well-being, connection

Presentation Year

2024

Start Date

3-5-2024 11:30 AM

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Mar 5th, 11:30 AM

Connection Matters! Strengthen Resilience with Full-Color Webs of Support

Session Six

When students and adults develop healthy connections, the impact sends positive ripples throughout schools and communities. These connections build webs of support that take students from where they are to where they want to be in life. Learn a practical, easy-to-implement framework and strength-based language that will improve the trajectory of students at home, school, and throughout their lives.