What does it mean to be resilient, as an individual, a community or as an organization? The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. As much as resilience involves “bouncing back” from these difficult experiences, it can also involve profound personal growth.”
An organization or community’s resilience is its ability to adapt to a changing and shifting world. Resilient organizations are able to adapt and recover from challenges that are often outside of their control.
We may think of resilience as a super power that only the best and most courageous of us possess, but in reality, it’s more like a muscle. It is something we all have, but it must be intentionally built up by hard work and practice.
When our grassroots team came together, we brought with us some hard gained resilience. Our board members and their families have surmounted homelessness, overcome addictions, built family businesses and lived with disability. You would think that all of our individual “muscle-building” experience would lead to super resiliency as a group. To some extent, yes it has. On the other hand, LYNC as an organization has only just begun our resilience “muscle-building” program. We have learned to flex our patience muscles as we wait for one after another government body to demand and approve yet one more last-minute assessment request. Our “keep the faith” muscles have had quite the work out too as we pray our supporters will stay with us through the quiet time of waiting. We are also improving our grip strength as we hold fast to our values and our mission to create equitable housing and transform rural communities.
However challenging our resilience training has been, we try to remember why we are doing this. We think often of families who are facing the adversity of inadequate housing, of seniors who have been “renovicted” out of their long-term affordable apartments, of young people losing hope that they will finally find a place where they belong.
Like building a muscle, increasing our resilience will take time and careful training. Focusing on our core values of Love Your Neighbour, Community as Foundation, Serve One Another and Stewardship will keep us strong and adaptable. As we grow as an organization, we will continue to meet challenges such as red tape and funding delays with grace and a growth mindset. Thank you for continued support!