Since the pandemic started, childrens’ mental health has taken a major hit.

One way to combat some of those challenges is to build resilience, one of the ideas behind Virginia’s Resiliency Week.

Former Gov. Ralph Northam formally recognized it in 2020 as people adjusted to pandemic life.

WHRO spoke with Erinn Portnoy from CHKD’s Child Advocacy Center about what resilience is and how to build it.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Mechelle Hankerson: The first week of May is Resiliency Week in Virginia. What does resilience mean and why is it important?

Erinn Portnoy: Resilience is the promotion of well-being and the people, the ability to cope with or recover from an adverse experience or traumatic event. 

M.H: What's an example of an adverse event? 

E.P: An adverse experience is really personal to the individual, so it could be something as simple as a dog barking at you. (Or a) really scary or a car accident, which I think is very scary to anything that it could be thought of as frightening, either on a small scale or something as big as a global pandemic, which it has been very scary for the entire world.

M.H: CHKD’s Child Advocacy Center is part of a project this year to help leaders in Hampton Roads understand resiliency. What does that project look like? 

E.P: We're the backbone agency to a network called the Hampton Roads Trauma Informed Community Network that is a network made up of individuals and agencies throughout the community and the network educates and promotes the idea of how adverse experiences affect communities and individuals. And we are educating and looking at policies to make changes and providing trainings throughout the community through (CHKD) and through the network. We are trying to strengthen our communities to be more resilient. 

M.H: And how do you do that? 

E.P: So one of the things that we have been doing is going out and doing community activities. And the Hampton Roads Trauma Informed Community Network, with an award with the Family and Children's Trust, went to Park Place Elementary School with four members of our network, and we worked with third, fourth and fifth graders. We had social emotional activities with them, and one of the things that we did was help them identify who a special person was in their life. And research shows that if you have one special person in a child's life, it can help promote resilience and children can have better outcomes after traumatic events. We helped them write stories about that special person, and they illustrated their stories.

M.H: What sorts of special people did the children choose? 

E.P: Some of the children chose teachers or grandparents, their parents, brothers, sisters, friends. So a lot of times it's the people closest to them there, their support network.

M.H: For those people in a child’s support system, what can they do when the child is having a hard time? 

E.P: The biggest thing that someone can do who is close to a child experiencing some kind of traumatic event or just having some kind of stressful day is really just listen to them, just being able to talk to them, spending time with them, just spending time with a child is so important. Read them a story. Take them to the park. Go for a walk with them. I mean that that just builds their self-esteem, and they know that they have that connection to a person.

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