From Trauma to Triumph: Building Resilience in Abused and Neglected Children

Children who experience abuse or neglect struggle with having a sense of value or worth; they also feel they are unworthy of love. As adults, we are aware of how vulnerable this can make our youth to tragic realities. We must all work together to teach them the highly valuable component of resilience known as contribution.

Childhood trauma shatters one’s sense of security. From an emotional perspective, survivors often struggle to breathe, feeling a heavy burden, living every moment afraid, expecting the next moment in their lives to be dreadful. I learned about childhood trauma at age four when I witnessed by friend being sexually abused by her older brother. From that moment, I lived every second of my life in fear, even of my own shadow. However, I was blessed to have people throughout my life teach me skills for overcoming adversity.

Resilience, the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after a traumatic or negative life event, is a pivotal trait to have and hone as one navigates surviving and thriving through trauma; it is of particular importance for Court Appointed Special Advocates to teach the abused and neglected children to whom they are assigned to develop the Seven Cs of Resilience so they can achieve normal development despite having experienced past or present adversity, significantly improving their chances for positive life outcomes.

When a CASA helps the child to whom he/she is assigned work to develop strategies for navigating family, relationships with teachers, coaches, or other adults in the community, their thoughts and behaviors, and stressors, the children learn to protect themselves thereby overcoming negative feelings and mapping out a successful life.

The Seven Cs of Resilience including competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control teach our youth to develop healthy strategies for coping with and overcoming stressful situations.

We all remember how awkward we felt navigating youth. Furthermore, we are all aware of how much more vulnerable our youth are today as they are being raised by social media. As such, building their sense of connection, one of the most important aspects of resilience, is essential to teaching them how to build strong ties to their family and community as well as create for themselves a sense of belonging.

Children who experience abuse or neglect struggle with having a sense of value or worth; they also feel they are unworthy of love. As adults, we are aware of how vulnerable this can make our youth to tragic realities. We must all work together to teach them the highly valuable component of resilience known as contribution. Without our youth feeling like, and knowing they are, a valuable member of society, they will never know the power they possess to make a mark and a difference on this world, or the community in which they live.

In this context, I am not referring to competence as youth being able to compute mathematical computations, rather their ability to effectively handle adverse and overwhelming situations. We need to teach them that while anger is a normal emotion, there are appropriate, positive ways to challenge their anger. For example, rather than giving up, they merely need to find an alternative method for arriving at a problem’s solution. Helping to build our youth’s understanding of competence also builds the belief they have in themselves and their capabilities.

Coping and control are a cause-and-effect relationship. Working to develop a child’s understanding that their knowledge and ability can directly affect the outcome of a situation, also develops their ability to appropriately navigate stressful situations. Ultimately, this helps them develop character and build a strong moral compass.

As our Court Appointed Special Advocates build resilience in our abused and neglected children, those children learn to transition from trauma to triumph. In educating youth about the Seven Cs of Resilience, we teach them to advocate for themselves, ultimately inspiring and empowering them to not only survive but thrive.