F ROM TH R E A T TO O P P O R TU N I T Y : TH E P OWE R O F R E S I L I E N C E
How individuals, families, and businesses handle stressful demands and changes will, in part, determine outcomes or impact. Handling demands or changes is influenced by the perceived meaning of the demands and changes and available internal and external resources or capital (Patterson, 2002 April; 2002 May). For some, the demands and changes are perceived as negative--threatening the status quo, life, and legacy of the farm and farm family. To them, stressors and resulting distress are risks to the farm business and the farm family. For some, the demands and changes are perceived as an opportunity to change the business, its products or processes, or family functioning. Farms play important roles in not only producing products, protecting the environment, and contributing to the economy, but in contributing to social cohesion, the culture of rural communities, and providing food for the USA and beyond. No matter the discipline, the central theme of the concept of resilience is the ability to recover from, or adjust to, change with its accompanying stress and/or crisis. For some, it implies getting back to conditions as they were before the change; for others, it is using change as an opportunity to adapt or become something new. For all, resilience is a protective and recovery resource or capital for risk management. Farms and farm families need a reservoir of resources to survive the ordinary and extraordinary stressors of life and maintain their mental, emotional, physical, social, and financial health and well-being. They need the capital of resilience. Resilience as a capital is gained through resilience processes. The science behind resilience continues to evolve, as does the meaning of terms. Family stress, resilience, and behavioral sciences look at the state of resilience and the process of developing resilience (Patterson, 2002, April; 2002 May).
For this Guide, we use the following definitions:
Resilience - capital available to individuals, families, communities, and businesses to respond to demands and challenges of change.
Resiliency - the ability to draw on the capital of resilience in response to risks produced by demands and challenges. These are the actions taken to become resilient.
Resilience is an asset, a capital, gained through processes of resiliency.
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