The Enacting Resilience Toolkit: Arts-Based Activities pulls together Professor Michelle LeBaron’s exciting 3-year project on resilience, social inclusion and arts-based approach.

Developed by Michelle LeBaron, Karen Bhangoo Randhawa at the University of California, Berkeley and Carrie MacLeod at the European Graduate School, the toolkit is now available online here!

Here’s more about the Enacting Resilience project:

“Four years ago, Professor LeBaron noticed that the Government of Canada’s counter-terrorism strategy is built around the concept of resilience. She was intrigued that resilience was central to national security.

As the strategy defines it, resilience includes a strong emphasis on prevention and ensuring that communities are both strong and aware of people who feel excluded. Research shows that when individuals have a sense of belonging, they are less vulnerable to violent extremist rhetoric. The policy goal involves increasing social cohesion and deepening partnerships with communities to prevent violent escalation either within or outside Canada. In the event of a violent attack, this work would also contribute to the capacity of a community to come together again in the aftermath.

For Professor LeBaron, this approach raised important questions about how resilience is fostered in communities. Approaching the question from a wealth of experience in intercultural conflict resolution research and practice, Professor LeBaron knew that one important aspect of community resilience has to do with the arts. Yet arts practices may not otherwise register in discussions of national security, even though they are important vehicles for multiple voices and perspectives, and as mirrors of treasured stories and multiple aspects of identities.

Together with colleagues Dr. Karen Bhangoo Randhawa of the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Peter Reiner of the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia and Professor Carrie MacLeod of the European Graduate School, she successfully obtained research funding from Public Safety Canada for a project on arts-related dialogue within the Punjabi diaspora in British Columbia…”

To learn more about Enacting Resilience project, read more here.